RonnieAdventure #0037 – Highway 178, Roadside Geology, Inyo County, California

While traveling east on State Highway 178, I was amazed at a geological formation that was visible along a road cut about four miles east of Shoshone, California. After taking some pictures at the site, when I returned home I started checking the Internet for information about what caused the unusual black streak through the road-cut rock formation. Much to my surprise, I found various theories on the Internet that varied from “It was caused by Superman when he dove through the Earth’s crust to stop an earthquake” to “It was caused by a meteorite when it struck the Earth.” Usually when I have a question about anything in the Mojave Desert, I always use Shortfuse (Bill Mann) as a reference, but this time I think Shortfuse got it wrong. (Bill has written six books detailing his extensive travels throughout the Mojave Desert and is usually considered a reliable source for anything unusual.)

People often ask how Bill got the nickname “Shotrfuse,” so some explanation may be in order. In the 1950s Bill was one of the few people roaming around the Mojave Desert that had a blasting license, so when the rock blasting business was slow he would take any jobs that were available. He blew up two railroad bridges (he said it was fortunate that he got the right ones), did demolition work, and worked on movie sets. On one movie set the dynamite charges kept going off before the cameramen were ready for the blast, so they started calling him “Shortfuse” and his wife “Dynamite.” The nicknames stuck!

Anyway, Shortfuse calls this the “Perlite Comet” site. He said that one time he picked up some of the black particles and put them in a campfire, but they didn’t burn like coal or pop as perlite does when heated. The rocks shine and sparkle when the sun is shining, but the particles are not black glass or obsidian.  Therefore, Shortfuse concluded that the shining particles are probably something from the perlite family, but maybe some unknown mineral.

When I did my research on the Internet, I found numerous theories about what did or did not cause the black streak. Some people say that the streak was not caused by a comet because comets are made of ice, so the streak would have been white. I also learned that astronomers have concluded that the streak was not caused by a meteorite because meteorites explode or cause a large crater when they collide with the Earth’s surface; thus, meteorites are not able to penetrate the Earth’s crust.  Advocates of the “Superman Theory” insist that this theory must be true because it was documented in a Superman movie. In the movie Lois Lane’s car falls into a crevasse caused by an earthquake in the Mojave Desert, so Superman goes back in time, dives through the Earth’s crust and supports the area under the Mojave Desert so that the earthquake does not ever occur. This looks like the spot in the movie where Superman dove through the Earth’s crust, so Superman advocated are convinced this theory must be true. The last theory investigated was the “Black Hole” theory, which advocates say has visual confirmation because the streak is black.

When I asked a geologist at work, he looked at the pictures and said that it was just an extinct volcanic vent. Well, so much for the Superman and black hole theories!