Lava from Mount Rainier
Part of Hall of Planet Earth.
On Tuesday, October 20, the Museum will close at 3 pm, and the Hall of Ocean Life will be closed all day.
Part of Hall of Planet Earth.
These dacite samples from Mount Rainier are 93,500 years old. Their columnlike structure is the result of its rapid cooling against a glacier. Dacite is a characteristic lava of subduction-zone volcanoes, and has a composition between those of basalt and rhyolite, the volcanic equivalent of granite.
Loaned by Mount Rainier National Park