DESCRIPTION:
Canada Volcanoes and Volcanics

[Map,37K,InlineGIF]
Volcanoes and Volcanic Areas of Western Canada
-- Modified from: Canada Natural Resources, Volcanoes of Canada, 2001, and C. J. Hickson, 1990, IN: Wood and Kienle

Canada has examples of almost every type of volcano. Although none are erupting now, at least 3 did in the last few hundred years and numerous others have the potential to erupt in the near future. Other countries' volcanoes also can affect Canadians: eruptions in Alaska or along the west coast of the U.S.A. can impact agriculture and air travel across western Canada. Mount Baker in particular has the potential to affect the Fraser Valley. In addition, large-magnitude eruptions anywhere in the world may affect our weather. ...

Link to: Volcanoes of Canada Website

The volcanoes younger than about 5 million years in western Canada can be grouped into 6 volcanic belts ... The scattering of volcanoes in south-central British Columbia that don't fit into the shown belts are the youngest members of the Chilcotin Plateau Basalt field. This belt was most active between 5 and 23 million years ago, but has seen activity as recently as 40 thousand years ago

Anahim Volcanic Belt

This nearly east-west line of volcanoes stretches from the west coast of British Columbia, just north of Vancouver Island, and reaches into the Interior Plateau near Quesnel. The volcanoes generally get younger as you go from the coast to the interior. These volcanoes probably formed as a result of the North American continent sliding westward over a small "hotspot", like the one feeding the Hawaiian islands. Volcanoes in this belt include the Rainbow, Ilgachuz, and Itcha ranges, and the Nazko cone which is only 7,200 years old.

Chilcotin Plateau Basalts

A zone of small-volume basaltic lava flow eruptions about 150 kilometers inland from and running parallel to the Garibaldi volcanic belt. Activity in this area is thought to be a result of extension of the crust behind the coastal subduction zone, a common phenomenon worldwide termed "back-arc extension volcanism". Chilcotin eruptions happened mainly 6-10 million years ago and 2-3 million years ago in the early stages of Garibaldi belt activity. In addition there have been a few eruptions in the Pleistocene (0.01 to 1.6 million years ago).

Garibaldi Volcanic Belt

The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt is the northern extension of the Cascades Volcanic Belt in the northwestern United States and contains the most explosive young volcanoes in Canada. It's volcanoes are also the closest to British Columbia's densely populated southwest corner. These volcanoes are the result of subduction of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate beneath the North American tectonic plate; the plates meet just seaward of the west coast of Vancouver Island. The volcanoes of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt generally are stratovolcanoes typical of subduction zones, and include Mount Garibaldi, Mount Cayley, and Mount Meager. Mount Meager's eruption 2,350 years ago is the youngest explosive eruption in Canada. It was similar to that of Mount St. Helens in 1980 and the ongoing eruption of Montserrat in the Caribbean.

Stikine Volcanic Belt

This large area of volcanism stretches from just north of Prince Rupert, into the Yukon Territory and the Alaska border. It is the most active volcanic region in Canada, containing more than 100 volcanoes, 3 of which erupted in the last few hundred years (2 witnessed by people). These volcanoes formed due to extensional cracking of the crust in response to the Pacific Ocean plate dragging northward along the edge of the North American plate, on its way to the Aleution subduction zone. This belt includes the volcanoes Volcano Mountain, Mount Edziza, Level Mountain, and the extremely youthful Tseax Cone (240 years), Lava Fork (360 years), and Ruby Mountain (103 years).

Wells Gray - Clearwater Volcanic Field

The Wells Gray - Clearwater Volcanic Field is a tight cluster of basaltic volcanoes, and includes the Quesnel Cone Group. The origin of this volcanism is not yet clear, but appears to be a result of local crustal thinning. Many of these eruptions occurred during periods of glaciation, so the eruptions interacted with the ice sheets in complex ways, forming distinctive volcanic forms. A number of these eruptions have occurred in the last 10,000 years. The volcanoes included in this field are Pyramid Mountain and Kostal Cone.

Wrangell Volcanic Belt

This belt of volcanoes lies largely in Alaska but extends across the border into southwestern Yukon Territory. It formed as a result of melting of the crust due to subduction of the Pacific Ocean plate beneath the North American plate at the Aleutian Arc. It includes the volcanoes Mount Wrangell, which has been active historically, and Mount Churchill, which has had 2 large-magnitude explosive eruptions in the last 2,000 years that blanketed most of the Yukon with ash.

Canada is commonly thought to occupy a gap in the Pacific Ring of Fire between the Cascade volcanoes of the western United States and the Aleutian volcanoes of Alaska, yet the Cordillera of British Columbia and Yukon includes more than 100 separate volcanic centers that have been active during the Quaternary. Many of these are small monogenetic cones but others, such as the vast shield and dome complex of Mount Edziza, are products of repeated eruptions that began in the Miocene and continued episodically into Recent times. Others, such as Mount Garibaldi and Meager Mountain, are northern manifestations of Cascade volcanism which differ from the High Cascade volcanoes of the United States only in their more advanced stage of glacial erosion. Because volcanic activity in western Canada was contemporaneous with the ebb and flow of Cordilleran glaciations, many of the volcanoes display ice contact features. Mount Garibaldi itself is a supraglacial volcano which erupted onto a regional ice sheet. Others, such as Hoodoo Mountain, were contained within basins thawed in the ice and assumed the flat-topped form of tuyas. Still others, such as the subglacial mounds of the Clearwater Field, were erupted under glacial ice to form piles of pillow lava and hyaloclastite. Although no historic eruptions have been recorded in Canada, native legends of lava flows destroying villages and killing fish are conformed by radiocarbon dates of 200-250 years ago on carbonized wood beneath basalt flows in the Stikine Volcanic Belt.

Neogene and Quaternary igneous rocks in the Canadian Cordillera are concentrated along five principal volcano-tectonic belts that are closely related to the modern tectonic regime (Souther, in press). In southwestern British Columbia, the Pemberton and Garibaldi volcanic belts and the Chilcotin Group plateau basalt define an arc-backarc pair related to subduction of the Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates under the continental margin. The Anahim Volcanic Belt, which extends from the coast near Bella Bella easterly across central British Columbia to the eastern boundary of the Intermontane Belt, is interpreted to be the trace of a mantle hot spot. The Stikine Volcanic Belt, which forms a broad zone through northwestern British Columbia and the southern Yukon, is thought to be a zone of extension developed in response to shear along the adjacent, transcurrent boundary between the continent and Pacific crust. The Wrangell Volcanic Belt, extending from Alaska into southwestern Yukon, is part of a continental arc related to convergence between the Pacific and the northern North American plates. Neogene volcanic activity outside of the five main volcano-tectonic belts was limited to the eruption of small basaltic centers in the Clearwater-Quesnel and McConnell Creek areas near the suture bounding the eastern edge of Quesnellia, and to the eruption of basaltic to rhyolitic volcanoes and hypabyssal rocks of the Alert Bay Belt possibly coincident with the subducted boundary between the Explorer and Juan de Fuca plates.

Canada Holocene Volcanoes

• Alligator Lake - Volcanic Field - Holocene
• Bridge River Cones - Volcanic Field - Holocene
• Crow Lagoon - Pyroclastic Cone - Holocene
• Edziza - Stratovolcano - Radiocarbon
• Fort Selkirk - Volcanic Field - Holocene
• Garibaldi Lake - Volcanic Field - Holocene
• Garibaldi, Mount - Stratovolcano - Radiocarbon
• Heart Peaks - Shield Volcano - Holocene
• Hoodoo Mountain - Subglacial Volcano - Holocene
• Iskut-Unuk River Cones - Cinder Cones - Radiocarbon
• Level Mountain - Shield Volcano - Holocene
• Meager - Complex Volcano - Radiocarbon
• Milbanke Sound Group - Cinder Cones - Holocene
• Nazko - Cinder Cones - Radiocarbon
• Ruby Mountain Cinder Cones Historical
• Satah Mountain - Volcanic Field - Holocene
• Silverthrone - Caldera Holocene
• Spectrum Range - Shield Volcano - Holocene
• Tseax River Cone - Pyroclastic Cone - Radiocarbon
• Wells Gray - Clearwater - Cinder Cones - Dendrochronology

The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt is the northern extension of the Cascades Volcanic Belt in the northwestern United States (including Mount Baker and Mount St. Helens, and contains the most explosive young volcanoes in Canada. It's volcanoes are also the closest to British Columbia's densely populated southwest corner. These volcanic belts are the result of subduction of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate beneath the North American tectonic plate; the plates meet just seaward of the west coast of Vancouver island. The volcanoes of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt generally are stratovolcanoes typical of subduction zone volcanoes, and include Mount Garibaldi, Mount Price, the Black Tusk, Mount Cayley Mount Fee, Mount Meager and Mount Silverthrone.

Neogene and Quaternary igneous rocks in the Canadian Cordillera are concentrated along five principal volcano-tectonic belts that are closely related to the modern tectonic regime (Souther, in press). In southwestern British Columbia, the Pemberton and Garibaldi volcanic belts and the Chilcotin Group plateau basalt define an arc-backarc pair related to subduction of the Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates under the continental margin. ...

The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt (Mathews, 1958; Green, et.al., 1988) is a northern extension of the Cascade Volcanic Belt in the western United States. It is offset to the west of the main Cascade trend and is a composite of at least three en echelon, north-trending segments, referred to here as the southern, central, and northern segments. The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt intersects the older Pemberton Volcanic Belt at a low angle near Meager Mountain where Garibaldi Group lavas rest on uplifted and deeply eroded remnants of Pemberton Volcanic Belt subvolcanic plutons. North of Meager Mountain the Garibaldi and Pemberton volcanic belts appear to merge into a single belt. Mount Silverthrone, farther to the northwest, was episodically active during both Pemberton and Garibaldi stages of volcanism.

The principal volcano in the southern segment of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt are Mount Garibaldi,Mount Price, and the Black Tusk. Black Tusk, the oldest volcano in the southern segment, is a composite pile formed during two distinct stages of magmatic activity, the first between 1.1 and 1.3 million years ago and the second between 0.17 and 0.21 million years ago. Mount Garibaldi, a moderately dissected composite Pelean cone, was built during the waning stages of the last major glaciation (Mathews, 1952, 1958; Green, 1981). Mount Price, a composite volcano much smaller than Mount Garibaldi, formed during three distinct periods of activity beginning at 1.2 million years ago and culminating with the eruption of Clinker Peak approximately 0.3 million years ago (Green, 1981). In addition to the large, central andesite-dacite volcanoes, the southern Garibaldi Belt is the site of numerous remnants of basalt and basaltic andesite flows and pyroclastic rocks. These include valley flows interbedded with till containing wood which yielded a carbon-14 age of approximately 34,000 years.

The central segment of the Garibaldi Belt (Souther, 1980) is defined by a group of eight volcanoes on the height of land east of Squamish River, and by remnants of basaltic flows preserved in the adjacent Squamish valley. Mount Cayley, the largest and most long-lived center (3.8 to 0.31 million years ago) is a multiple plug dome of dacite and minor rhyodacite form which most of the original, outer cone of pyroclastic material has been eroded away. Mount Fee, a narrow elliptical spine of rhyodacite approximately 1 kilometer long and 0.24 kilometers across, rises 150 meters above the ridge. Complete denudation of the central spine as well as the absence of till under the Mount Fee flows suggest a preglacial age. The other volcanoes of the central Garibaldi Belt (Ember Ridge, Pali Dome, Cauldron Dome, Slag Hill, and Cricible Dome) are intraglacial, tuya-like forms with over-steepened, ice-contact margins.

The northern segment of the Garibaldi Belt includes the Meager Mountain complex and several remnants of basaltic and andesitic piles which extend north of Meager Mountain almost to the Interior Plateau. Meager Mountain (Read, 1978; Lewis and Souther, 1978) is a complex of at least four overlapping composite dacite to rhyodacite volcanoes that become progressively younger from south to north, ranging in age from approximately 2 million years to around 2,490 years old. North of Meager Mountain, the Salal Glacier Volcanic Complex (Lawrence, et.al., 1984) and the Bridge River cones (Souther, 1990) comprise remnants of both andesitic and alkali basalt cones and flows. These range in age from approximately one million to 500,000 years, and commonly display ice-contact features. The alkaline affinity of many of these lavas contrasts with the calc-alkaline nature of the larger central volcanoes of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt. Their proximity to the volcanic front suggests a discontinuity in the subducted plate, possibly a subducted plate edge analogous to that proposed for the Alert Bay Volcanic Belt, or magma generation at the northern end of the active arc (Rogers, 1985).

Garibaldi
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Latitude: 49.92 N
Longitude: 123.03 W
Height: 290 to 2,316 meters
Type: Stratovolcanoes, Lava Flows, and a Cinder Cone.

Compiled From: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press

Pleistocene-Holocene eruptions constructed a line of three andesite volcanoes (Black Tusk, Mount Price, and The Table) and several small basaltic andesite complexes in the Garibaldi Lake area; basaltic lavas were extruded within Cheakamus River valley, 4 kilometers northwest of the main volcanic front.

The oldest and most striking andesite volcano is Black Tusk, a glacially dissected complex built during two stages of activity. The first (1.1 - 1.3 million years ago) produced hornblende andesite flows and lithic tuffs which form bluffs northwest, southwest, and southeast of the main volcanic edifice. Prolonged erosion destroyed the original cone, and was followed by effusion of hypersthene andesite flows which locally terminate with precipitous (100 meter) ice-contact margins. This eruptive activity (0.17 - 0.21 million years ago) culminated with extrusion of an endogenous dome and related lava which form the present summit (2,316 meters) spire. The late Pleistocene ice sheet subsequently incised a deep, north-trending U-shaped valley into the eastern flank of the second-stage cone. This valley was filled by 0.11-million-years-ago basaltic andesite and 0.4-million-years-ago basalt flows that emanated from Cinder Cone, 2 kilometers east of the Black Tusk complex.

The Mount Price complex, 5 kilometers south of Black Tusk, formed during three periods of activity. Initial 1.2-million-years-ago eruptions constructed a hornblende andesite stratovolcano on the drift-covered floor of a cirquelike basin. The focus of volcanic activity then shifted westward, where 0.3-million-years-ago eruptions of andesite-dacite lavas and Pelean pyroclastic flows formed the nearly symmetrical (2,050 meters) Mount Price volcano. This cone was overridden by the continental ice-sheet before eruptions at a satellite vent on its northern flanks. Possibly contemporaneous activity occurred at Clinker Peak on the western shoulder of Mount Price. Two hornblende-biotite andesite flows, which spread 6 kilometers northwest and southwest from the breached lava ring, were ponded (>250 meters thickness) against the continental ice sheet. These lavas postdate disappearance of the Cordilleran ice sheet from higher altitudes, but predate its disappearance from lower elevations in early Holocene time.

The Table, a hornblende andesite tuya situated approximately 3 kilometers southeast of Mount Price, rises precipitously 305 meters above glaciated basement rocks. The edifice formed by effusion of flatlying flows within a pit thawed through the continental ice sheet. Absence of glacial erratics on its summit and lack of erosional features attributable to glaciation suggest eruptions occurred during early Holocene time.

Garibaldi
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Latitude: 49.85 N
Longitude: 123.00 W
Height: 2,678 meters (8,787 feet)
Type: Stratovolcano
Lastest Eruptions: About 10,000 (?) years ago.
Nature or products of eruptions: Lava flows; fragmental pyroclastic deposits.
Present thermal activity: None, may be extinct.
Remarks: Volcano's core is solid dacite rocks. Most of cone comprises fragmental material that was deposited on surrounding ice of continental glacier. ² Mount Garibaldi is a composite cone and domes built on a glacier. Early activity was between 0.26 and 0.22 million years ago. Atwell Peak erupted approximately 13,000 years ago. Opal Cone was post-Wisconsin glacial stage. No historic activity.³

Compiled From: ¹ Smithsonian Institution - Global Volcanism Program Website, 2000; ² Foxworthy and Hill, 1982, Volcanic Eruptions of 1980 at Mount St. Helens, The First 100 Days: USGS Professional Paper 1249; and ³ Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press

The alpine meadows, glaciers, and striking blue lakes of Garibaldi Provincial Park are set in a volcanic landscape of lava flows and cinder cone volcanoes. These landforms record the interaction of volcanic eruptions with glacial ice. The most recent volcanic activity occurred during the last Ice Age that ended 10,000 years ago.

Mount Garibaldi, an eroded volcano, towers two and a half kilometers above downtown Squamish. Mount Garibaldi was built by violent volcanic eruptions 15 to 20 thousand years ago when the Squamish Valley was filled with a large glacier. Volcanic debris that formed the western flank of the volcano spread across the surface of the glacier. When the glacier later melted, the western side of the volcano collapsed into the Squamish Valley.

Mount Garibaldi is one of the larger volcanoes (6.5 cubic kilometers) in a chain of small Quaternary volcanic piles -- the Garibaldi Belt -- which trend N25degrees W within the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Mount Garibaldi is noteworthy both for the excellent exposures of its internal structure and for its striking topographic anomalies, which can be attributed to the growth of the volcano onto a major glacial stream, part of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, and the subsequent collapse of the flanks of the volcano with the melting of the ice.

The western slopes of the mountain reveal basement rocks, sheared and altered quartz diorite, sculptured by streams and glaciers into a rugged topography with relief up to 1,800 meters. ...

Eruptions from the site of the south summit (Atwell Peak) then created a conical pile of tuff-breccia at least 700 meters thick at its apex. ...

Unweathered glacial erratics are found resting on a remnant of the original top surface of the tuff-breccia deposit up to, but not above, the 1,660 meter level, almost 300 meters lower than expected had volcanism here preceded the climax of Wisconsin glaciation. ... Only where basement rocks extend above the 1,400 meter level do the tuff-breccias lie undisturbed; below this level they are considered to have been deposited on glacier ice. With continuing retreat of the ice the support was withdrawn from those parts of the tuff-breccia cone which had been built onto the ice, causing collapse in a series of landslides which ultimately exposed the inner parts of the cone.

Later volcanism from the western summit formed lava flows which mantled the landslide headwall on the west side of the mountain. About the same time a satellite vent, Opal Cone, 3.5 kilometers southeast of the summit, gave rise to a voluminous (4.5 cubic kilometer) hornblende-biotite dacite flow wich moved 20 kilometers down Ring Creek without encountering any residual glacial ice. These eruptions have been assigned to early Holocene time. There has been no subsequent eruption at Mount Garibaldi. ...

Mount Garibaldi is located 80 kilometers north of Vancouver, British Columbia, in the Garibaldi Provincial Park. Good view of the volcano are approximately 25 and 55 kilometers north of Vancouver along Highway 99. Hiking is required to reach Garibaldi itself.

Because volcanic activity in western Canada was contemporaneous with the ebb and flow of Cordilleran glaciations, many of the volcanoes display ice contact features. Mount Garibaldi itself is a supraglacial volcano which erupted onto a regional ice sheet. Others, such as Hoodoo Mountain, were contained within basins thawed in the ice and assumed the flat-topped form of tuyas. Still others, such as the subglacial mounds of the Clearwater Field, were erupted under glacial ice to form piles of pillow lava and hyaloclastite.

Hoodoo Mountain lies west of the main axis of the Stikine Volcanic Belt. It consists of a symmetrical lava dome, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter, surrounded on three sides by alpine glaciers. Only its southern slope, which extends down to the floodplain of Iskut River is ice free. Hoodoo's steep sides and nearly flat 900-meter summit suggest it formed as a subglacial tuya when regional ice sheets covered all but the highest peaks of the northern Coast Mountains. Subaerial lava flows which rest on glacial till along Iskut River indicate that volcanic activity continued after retreat of the ice. Radiometric dates of 0.11 and 0.09 million years are consistent with the age of other ice-contact features in the Stikine Volcanic Belt.

Because volcanic activity in western Canada was contemporaneous with the ebb and flow of Cordilleran glaciations, many of the volcanoes display ice contact features. Mount Garibaldi itself is a supraglacial volcano which erupted onto a regional ice sheet. Others, such as Hoodoo Mountain, were contained within basins thawed in the ice and assumed the flat-topped form of tuyas. Still others, such as the subglacial mounds of the Clearwater Field, were erupted under glacial ice to form piles of pillow lava and hyaloclastite.

Mount Garibaldi is one of the larger volcanoes (6.5 cubic kilometers) in a chain of small Quaternary volcanic piles -- the Garibaldi Belt -- which trend N25degrees W within the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Mount Garibaldi is noteworthy both for the excellent exposures of its internal structure and for its striking topographic anomalies, which can be attributed to the growth of the volcano onto a major glacial stream, part of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, and the subsequent collapse of the flanks of the volcano with the melting of the ice.

Hoodoo Mountain lies west of the main axis of the Stikine Volcanic Belt. It consists of a symmetrical lava dome, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter, surrounded on three sides by alpine glaciers. Only its southern slope, which extends down to the floodplain of Iskut River is ice free. Hoodoo's steep sides and nearly flat 900-meter summit suggest it formed as a subglacial tuya when regional ice sheets covered all but the highest peaks of the northern Coast Mountains. Subaerial lava flows which rest on glacial till along Iskut River indicate that volcanic activity continued after retreat of the ice. Radiometric dates of 0.11 and 0.09 million years are consistent with the age of other ice-contact features in the Stikine Volcanic Belt.

The Wells Gray - Clearwater Volcanic Field is a tight cluster of basaltic volcanoes, and includes the Quesnel Cone Group. The origin of this volcanism is not yet clear, but appears to be a result of local crustal thinning. Many of these eruptions occurred during periods of glaciation, so the eruptions interacted with the ice sheets in complex ways, forming distinctive volcanic forms. A number of these eruptions have occurred in the last 10,000 years. The volcanoes included in this field are Pyramid Mountain and Kostal Cone.

MORE about Glaciations and the Ice Age

Location: British Columbia, Canada
Latitude: 50.6 N
Longitude: 123.5 W
Height: 2,680 meters¹
Type: Complex Stratovolcano
Lastest Eruptions: Four episodes of activity²:

1.9 to 2.2 million years ago

<1.9 and >0.5 million years ago

1.0 and 0.5 million years ago

0.15 to 0.002 million years ago

Compiled From: ¹ Smithsonian Institution - Global Volcanism Program Website, 2000, and ² Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press

Mount Meager is a dormant volcano. However, about 2400 years ago it erupted a great volcanic cloud that deposited ash as far east as Alberta. The eruption was similar in size to the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The earth beneath Mount Meager is hot. Surface waters seep under the volcano and become heated, then rise along fractures to reach the surface as hot springs. Holes have been drilled to 3000 meters below the mountain to test this hot water plumbing system as a geothermal energy source. When hot water rises quickly in a drill hole it changes to steam; the force of this expanding steam can be used to generate electricity.

Mount Meager, 150 kilometers north of Vancouver, British Columbia, is the youngest of four overlapping stratovolcanoes resting on a 400 meters high ridge of nonvolcanic, crystalline and metamorphic rock. The complex comprises at least eight vents that have produced basaltic to more evolved andesiting, dacitic, and rhyolitic magmas. Andesite lava flows (500,000 to 1,000,000 years old) are the most abundant rock type and their maximum total flow thickness is over 1 km. The most recent volcanic activity started 2350 radiocarbon years ago from a vent on the northeast side of the mountain and consisted of a massive, dacitic, Plinian eruption

Mount Meager's eruption of 2350 years ago is the youngest explosive eruption in Canada. It was similar to that of Mount St. Helens in 1980 and also the ongoing eruption of Montserrat in the Caribbean. The explosive phase of this eruption generated an ash plume that covered most of southern B.C. and extended into southern Alberta. The existence of anomalous heat beneath Mt. Meager is demonstrated by the large number of hotsprings around the volcano, some of which feed the hot tubs at Meager hotsprings. ...

The northern segment of the Garibaldi Belt includes the Meager Mountain complex and several remnants of basaltic and andesitic piles which extend north of Meager Mountain almost to the Interior Plateau. Meager Mountain (Read, 1978; Lewis and Souther, 1978) is a complex of at least four overlapping composite dacite to rhyodacite volcanoes that become progressively younger from south to north, ranging in age from approximately 2 million years to around 2,490 years old.

The Meager Mountain volcanic complex is the northernmost volcano in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, an extension of the Cascade volcanic belt into Canada. It is a Tertiary to Quaternary edifice exhibiting at least eight vents which produced mafic to felsic rocks. Numerous feeder dikes to older units are exposed by deep erosion. The volcano is dominated by porphyritic andesite to rhyodacite lava and pyroclastic breccias, although several Quaternary basalt flows and breccias occur on the periphery. Plagioclase porphyritic andesite lava flows and breccia (0.5 to 1.0 million years ago) are the most voluminous rocks, with a maximum of 1,200 meters of total flow thickness. The most recent volcanic activity occurred 2,350 years ago and produced three distinct units known as the Bridge River Assemblage. ...

A group of dissected rhyodacitic volcanic necks forms the highest peaks in the area and are flanked by their eruptive products. ... The Devastator is a dissected andesitic volcanic neck which was the source area for a thick sequence of 0.5-1.0 million years ago andesite lava flows. Erosional remnants of these flows form the stratified crags of Pylon Peak. The unstable slopes of the Devastator are the source for many Recent debris flows and consist of weak, hydrothermally altered felsic rocks. Two peripheral clusters of natural hot springs occur within the complex. For this reason the area has been investigated as a potential hydrothermal energy resource.

Meager Mountain lies 150 kilometers north of Vancouver, British Columbia. In Canada, even though some volcanoes pose a significant threat to local communities and any sizable eruption would affect the economy of western Canada, volcano monitoring and research is limited. Because no large eruptions have occurred in Canada in the last few hundred years and most of our volcanoes are currently in remote locations, volcano monitoring is a lower priority than dealing with the hazards of earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis. However, as for earthquakes, a future volcanic eruption in Canada is inevitable and it is very likely to have a serious impact on people. This impact is becoming ever more likely as our population increases and development spreads. For these reasons the Geological Survey of Canada, with much help from Canadian university scientists, has been gradually building a baseline of knowledge on the state of our volcanoes. In addition, we are continually improving our ability to monitor the volcanoes in order to forecast impending activity.

In Canada, even though some volcanoes pose a significant threat to local communities and any sizable eruption would affect the economy of western Canada, volcano monitoring and research is limited. Because no large eruptions have occurred in Canada in the last few hundred years and most of our volcanoes are currently in remote locations, volcano monitoring is a lower priority than dealing with the hazards of earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis. However, as for earthquakes, a future volcanic eruption in Canada is inevitable and it is very likely to have a serious impact on people. This impact is becoming ever more likely as our population increases and development spreads. For these reasons the Geological Survey of Canada, with much help from Canadian university scientists, has been gradually building a baseline of knowledge on the state of our volcanoes. In addition, we are continually improving our ability to monitor the volcanoes in order to forecast impending activity.

Over the last 50 years, scientists at the Geological Survey of Canada and at Canadian universities have documented the past behaviour of a number of Canadian volcanoes. We now have a robust database telling us where the volcanoes are, how they tend to erupt and which are most active. The Catalogue of Canadian Volcanoes lists a small portion of that database. Unfortunately we don't yet know enough about the frequency of eruptions to predict which volcanoes are most likely to erupt next, and what their likely impact will be. Work in this area is ongoing, and you can find out more in the section Volcanology in the GSC.

Link to: Volcanoes of Canada Website

Currently no Canadian volcanoes are monitored sufficiently to allow us to determine how active their magma systems are. The network of seismographs, which exists to monitor and understand tectonic earthquakes, is too far from our volcanoes to give us an accurate picture of what is happening beneath them. If a Canadian volcano becomes highly restless, the existing seismic network will probably detect the increase in activity, but in most areas this detection will come in advance only for potentially large eruptions, or when the eruption is on the brink of starting -- or has already started.

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