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Mount Wrangell

Wrangell

Shield volcano · United States · 4278m

Mount Wrangell, on the right skyline, is part of the Wrangell volcanic field. There are two large calderas at the summit and the inner ice-filled caldera contains three craters. Minor, possibly phreatic eruptions have occurred during the 20th century. To the left is rounded Mount Zanetti, a flank cone. The sharp-topped peak to the far-left of this view from the SW is a flank cone of the neighboring Pleistocene Mount Drum.
Mount Wrangell, on the right skyline, is part of the Wrangell volcanic field. There are two large calderas at the summit and the inner ice-filled caldera contains three craters. Minor, possibly phreatic eruptions have occurred during the 20th century. To the left is rounded Mount Zanetti, a flank cone. The sharp-topped peak to the far-left of this view from the SW is a flank cone of the neighboring Pleistocene Mount Drum. · Photo: Photo by B. Cella (National Park Service). · Wikimedia Commons
Type
Shield volcano
Country
United States
Region
North America Volcanic Regions / Wrangell Volcanic Arc
Elevation
4278m
Coordinates
62.006, -144.017
Last eruption
1912
Tectonic setting
Intraplate / Continental crust (> 25 km)
Landform
Shield
Major rock type
Andesite / Basaltic Andesite
Geological summary

Mount Wrangell is one of the world's largest continental-margin volcanoes, with a diameter of 30 km at 2,000 m elevation. The andesitic shield volcano has produced fluid lava flows as long as 58 km and contains an ice-filled caldera 4-6 km in diameter and 1 km deep, located within an older 15-km-wide caldera. Most of the edifice was constructed during eruptions between about 600,000 and 200,000 years ago. Formation of the summit caldera followed sometime between about 200,000 and 50,000 years ago. Three post-caldera craters are located at the broad summit, along the northern and western caldera rim. A steep-sided flank cinder cone, Mount Zanetti, is located 6 km NW of the summit. The westernmost cone has been the source of infrequent eruptions beginning in the 18th century. Increased heat flux in recent years has melted large volumes of ice in the northern crater.

From Wikipedia

Mount Wrangell, is a massive shield volcano located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in southeastern Alaska, United States. The shield rises over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) above the Copper River to its southwest. Its volume is over 220 cubic miles (920 km3), making it more than twice as massive as Mount Shasta in California, the largest stratovolcano by volume in the Cascades. It is part of the Wrangell Mountains as well as the Wrangell Volcanic Field, which extends for more than 250 kilometers (160 mi) across Southcentral Alaska into the Yukon Territory in Canada, and has an eruptive history spanning the time from Pleistocene to Holocene.

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Eruption history

Summary (VEI over time)
Click a bar to see individual eruptions
190~371 · 1 eruptions · max VEI 41640~1821 · 2 eruptions · max VEI 21821~2002 · 11 eruptions · max VEI 2190552109614581821

Detailed timeline

  1. 2002VEI 1Observed
    2002-08-01 – 2002-08-02
  2. 1999VEI 1Observed
    1999-05-14 – 1999-05-14
  3. 1969VEI 1Observed
    1969-08-16 – Ongoing
    West Crater
  4. 1930VEI ?Geological estimate
    1930-06-30 – Ongoing
  5. 1921VEI ?Geological estimate
    1921-07-03 – 1921-07-03
    North flank?
  6. 1911VEI 1Observed
    1911-04-14 – 1912-09-14
  7. 1907VEI ?Geological estimate
    1907-04-01 – Ongoing
  8. 1902VEI 2Observed
    1902-07-15 – Ongoing
    West Crater
  9. 1900VEI 2Observed
    1900-06 – Ongoing
  10. 1899VEI 2Observed
    1899-09-03 – Ongoing
  11. 1884VEI 2Geological estimate
    1884-10-26 – 1885-02-04
  12. 1819VEI 2Geological estimate
    1819 – Ongoing
  13. 1784VEI 2Geological estimate
    1784-07 – Ongoing
  14. 190 (±200 yrs)VEI 4Geological estimate
    190 – Ongoing

External links

⚠ For reference only. Not for emergency response.