VOLCANOES In CANADA?

Question

VOLCANOES In CANADA?

Where are the volcanoes in Canada?

Why are they found there?

When was the last time they had an eruption?

When and where will an eruption arrive/happen next?

Answer 1

Volcanism in Canada

Canada has examples of almost every type of volcano found on earth, including stratovolcanoes, calderas, cinder cones, shield volcanoes, maars, submarine volcanoes and tuyas. Most of Canada's volcanoes are located in British Columbia. Several mountains that many British Columbians look at every day are dormant volcanoes. Most of them have erupted during the Pleistocene or Holocene epochs, and others have the potential to erupt in the near future.

Volcanism in Canada has been responsible for many of Canada's geographical features and mineralization. While the land's volcanic activity dates back to the Precambrian era, activity continues today with eruptions occurring in Western Canada approximately every few hundred years. Because many of Canada's volcanoes are in remote, rugged areas and there low level of activity, Canada is commonly thought to occupy a gap in the Pacific Ring of Fire between the Cascade Volcanic Arc of western United States and the Aleutian volcanoes of Alaska, yet British Columbia and Yukon includes more than 100 separate volcanic centers that have been active during the Quaternary.

Recent volcanic activity

Many Canadian volcanoes continue to be geologically active. The most geologically recent volcanic eruptions include:

Level Mountain Range, Canada's most voluminous and most persistent eruptive center, might have erupted sometime during the Holocene.

Nazko Cone, the youngest volcano in the Anahim Volcanic Belt, erupted 7200 BP.

Hoodoo Mountain erupted 7050 BP.

Mount Meager erupted about 2350 BP, sending an ash column approximately 20 km (12 mi) high into the stratosphere.

Mount Edziza, Canada's second largest eruptive center, erupted about 1340 BP.

Mount Silverthrone, might have eruptions younger than 1000.

Possible eruptions in the Wells Gray-Clearwater Volcanic Field in 1500.

The Tseax River Cone erupted in 1775.

Ruby Mountain might have erupted in 1898.

Lava Fork Valley might have erupted in 1904.

Western Canada is also seismically active. 11 volcanoes in Canada appear related to seismic activity since 1975, including: Mount Silverthrone, Mount Meager, Wells Gray-Clearwater Volcanic Field, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Cayley, Castle Rock, Lava Fork Valley, Mount Edziza, Hoodoo Mountain and Crow Lagoon.This suggests that these volcanoes still contain living magma plumbing systems. Although the existing data do not allow a clear conclusion, these observations are further indications that some of Canada's volcanoes are potentially active, and that their associated hazards may be significant. It is noteworthy that the seismic activity correlates with some of Canada's most youthful volcanoes, and with long-lived volcanic centers with a history of significant explosive behavior, such as Mount Garibaldi, Mount Cayley, Mount Meager and Mount Edziza.

The 1775 eruption of the Tseax River Cone is Canada's worst known geophysical disaster. The eruption produced a 22.5 km long lava flow, destroying two Nisga'a villages and resulted in the death of approximately 2000 Nisga'a people by poisonous smoke and gases. The lava flows traveled south 5 km where they crossed the border into Alaska and dammed the Blue River. The Nass River valley was inundated by the lava flows and contain abundant tree molds and lava tubes. The event happened at the same time with the arrival of the first European explorers to penetrate the uncharted coastal waters of northern British Columbia. Today, the basaltic lava deposits are a draw to tourists and are part of the Nisga'a Memorial Lava Beds Provincial Park.

A series of <3.0 Magnitude earthquakes began October 9th, 2007 in the vicinity of Nazko Cone which could signal the resumption of intense subterraenean volcanic activity in the area. 34 such <3.0 Magnitude earthquakes were observed on October 10th, 2007 alone. Since then more than 1000 small earthquakes have been recorded.[4] These earthquakes are thought to have originated 25 kilometers below the surface, but none of these earthquakes have been felt by people. The cause of this seismic activity is believed to be the upwelling of 500,000 m2 of magma because the area is not close to any faults or tectonic plate boundaries.This is the first indication of potential volcanic activity in Canada since around 1830 to 1850 in northwestern British Columbia.

Major volcanoes

Mount Edziza

Mount Meager

Ilgachuz Range

Itcha Range

Rainbow Range

Bennett Lake Volcanic Complex

Level Mountain Range

Mount Garibaldi

Mount Cayley

Mount Silverthrone

Mount Pleasant Caldera

Sturgeon Lake Caldera

Blake River Megacaldera Complex