| NAME
|
MT. KONOCTI
|
| LOCATION
|
Clear Lake Volcanics,
North Coast Ranges, Lake County, California.
|
CHEMICAL
SOURCE(S)
|
Mt. Konocti.
|
| DESCRIPTION
|
This source of rhyolitic obsidian, situated at the western edge of Clear Lake, covers an area of approximately 12 square miles on the south slopes of Mt. Konocti. The quality of the glass is generally inferior to obsidian from other North Coast Ranges sources and tends to be brittle with phenocrysts and other inclusions. Colors may vary from black to brown-black to gray to red-brown and banding is also common. Although the artifact manufacturing quality of the glass is somewhat marginal, trace element studies verify the prehistoric use of obsidian from the source. Prehistoric utilization of the glass appears to have been largely confined to the local Mt. Konocti and Clear Lake region and characterized artifacts correlated with the source are almost entirely from Mendocino County sites. Occasional artifacts from this source have also been reported from sites in San Francisco, Lake, Santa Clara, and Colusa counties.
Obsidian Hydration: Stratigraphic and experimental studies indicate that the relative hydration rate of Mt. Konocti obsidian is approximately equivalent to the Napa Valley source and slower than the nearby Borax Lake source.
|
| REFERENCES
|
Basgall 1993
Anderson 1936
Bowman et al. 1973a, 1973b
Ericson 1981
Ericson et al. 1976
Fredrickson 1989
Gary and McClear-Gary 1990
Hearn et al. 1995
Heizer and Treganza 1944
Jackson 1974, 1986, 1989
Kaufman 1980
Tremaine 1989, 1993
Tremaine and Fredrickson 1988
|
| CREDITS
|
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|
