The Back River volcanic complex is an Archean stratovolcano spanning the Northwest Territories–Nunavut border in Northern Canada. It is located 480 kilometres (298 mi) northwest of Yellowknife and to the northwest of the Back River from which it takes its name. The volcano constitutes the Back Group of the Yellowknife Supergroup and is somewhat anomalous in the Slave craton because it has undergone only a low degree of deformation and is subhorizontal. The southern half of the complex is exposed at the crest of a small dome. This is the eroded portion of the stratovolcano that has been preserved in an upright position. The complex comprises four volcanic sedimentary sequences (Innerring, Thlewyco, Boucher-Regan, Kelsh) that correspond to the phases of growth and destruction of this stratovolcano.
The Archean Eon is one of the four geologic eons of Earth history, occurring 4,000 to 2,500 million years ago. During the Archean, the Earth's crust had cooled enough to allow the formation of continents and life started to form.
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava, tephra, pumice and ash. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and periodic intervals of explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions, although some have collapsed summit craters called calderas. The lava flowing from stratovolcanoes typically cools and hardens before spreading far, due to high viscosity. The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high-to-intermediate levels of silica, with lesser amounts of less-viscous mafic magma. Extensive felsic lava flows are uncommon, but have travelled as far as 15 km (9.3 mi).
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately 1,144,000 km2 (442,000 sq mi) and a 2011 population of 41,462, it is the second-largest and the most populous of the three territories in Northern Canada. Its estimated population as of 2016 is 44,291. Yellowknife became the territorial capital in 1967, following recommendations by the Carrothers Commission.
The Innerring sequence, which constitutes the oldest rocks of the complex, represents the upper part of an eroded early phase of the volcano (U-Pb zircon igneous age of 2.708 Gigaannum (Ga)).
The Thlewyco sequence represents the main construction phase of the volcano and forms an outward dipping, annular succession around the Innerring sequence, with an aggregate thickness of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft)-5,000 m (16,000 ft). Its stratigraphy changes dramatically around the crator, varying from five cycles of andesitic and rhylotic lava, followed by succession of volcanistic debris on the north side; to 30 subarial andesitic flows and rare pyroclastic and epivolcaniclastic units on the eastern side; to interlayered dacitic and andesitic lava and tuff overlain by a thick succession of voluminous, nonwelded, ash-flow tuff and volcaniclastic rocks on the south side. Volcanism in this sequence ended with the eruption of large rhyolite and dacite dome-flow complexes (U-Pb zircon dated at 2.692 Ga). The Innerring and Thlewycho sequences represent a complex history of explosive eruptions from numerous eruptive centers.
Andesite ( or ) is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and rhyolite, and ranges from 57 to 63% silicon dioxide (SiO2) as illustrated in TAS diagrams. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene or hornblende. Magnetite, zircon, apatite, ilmenite, biotite, and garnet are common accessory minerals. Alkali feldspar may be present in minor amounts. The quartz-feldspar abundances in andesite and other volcanic rocks are illustrated in QAPF diagrams.
Lava is molten rock generated by geothermal energy and expelled through fractures in planetary crust or in an eruption, usually at temperatures from 700 to 1,200 °C. The structures resulting from subsequent solidification and cooling are also sometimes described as lava. The molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites, though such material located below the crust is referred to by other terms.
Pyroclastic rocks or pyroclastics are sedimentary clastic rocks composed solely or primarily of volcanic materials. Where the volcanic material has been transported and reworked through mechanical action, such as by wind or water, these rocks are termed volcaniclastic. Commonly associated with unsieved volcanic activity—such as Plinian or krakatoan eruption styles, or phreatomagmatic eruptions—pyroclastic deposits are commonly formed from airborne ash, lapilli and bombs or blocks ejected from the volcano itself, mixed in with shattered country rock.
The Boucher-Regan sequence, with its predominance of pillowed lava flows, suggests that this northern-flank of the volcano was submerged during deposition.
Pillow lavas are lavas that contain characteristic pillow-shaped structures that are attributed to the extrusion of the lava under water, or subaqueous extrusion. Pillow lavas in volcanic rock are characterized by thick sequences of discontinuous pillow-shaped masses, commonly up to one metre in diameter. They form the upper part of Layer 2 of normal oceanic crust.
The Kelsh sequence on the northwestern side comprises epiclastic volcarenite, rhyolite-dacite block breccia from lava domes, polymict breccia, and a conglomerate of andesite, dacite-rhyolite clasts, and andesitic tuff. The exposed succession consists of iron-formation, oolitic-stromatolitic carbonate, sulphidic volcaniclastic rocks and graphitic slate that marks the end of volcanism. The Kelsh sequence forms a broad apron that is interpreted as a shallow, submarine to subaerial, clastic fan derived by degradation of the volcanic pile (U-Pb zircon dated at 2.586 Ga).
Age determinations in the Black River complex are similar to the ages of volcanic rock found in the upper Kam Group of the Yellowknife greenstone belt as well as other volcanic centers in the western Slave province. Detrital zircon geochronology on turbiditic sequences confirm a secondary deposition of turbidite units at ca. 2.62-2.60 Ga that was widespread throughout the Slave province.
The Kam Group is a 10 km (6 mi) thick Archean volcanic group in the Yellowknife greenstone belt of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It consists of tholeiitic mafic and subordinate felsic volcanic rocks that were erupted in a submarine environment about 2706 million years ago.
The Yellowknife greenstone belt, also called the Yellowknife Volcanic Belt, is an Archean greenstone belt in the southern Slave craton, Northwest Territories, Canada. It is mostly made of mafic volcanic rocks and is bordered to the east by batholithic intrusions of the Western Granodiorite Complex and beyond to the north by the Duckfish Lake Granite. Intrusive equivalents are collectively known as the Kam Group. Most of the Yellowknife townsite and the Con and Giant gold mines are within the Kam Group. The Yellowknife greenstone belt stands out as a positive topographic feature.
Detrital zircon geochronology is the science of analyzing the age of zircons deposited within a specific sedimentary unit by examining their inherent radioisotopes, most commonly the uranium–lead ratio. The chemical name of zircon is zirconium silicate and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. Zircon is a common accessory or trace mineral constituent of most granite and felsic igneous rocks. Due to its hardness, durability and chemical inertness, zircon persists in sedimentary deposits and is a common constituent of most sands. Zircons contain trace amounts of uranium and thorium and can be dated using several modern analytical techniques. It has become increasingly popular in geological studies from the 2000s mainly due to the advancement in radiometric dating techniques. Detrital zircon age data can be used to constrain the maximum depositional age, determine provenance, and reconstruct the tectonic setting on a regional scale.
The geology of the Lassen volcanic area presents a record of sedimentation and volcanic activity in the area in and around Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California, U.S. The park is located in the southernmost part of the Cascade Mountain Range in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Pacific Oceanic tectonic plates have plunged below the North American Plate in this part of North America for hundreds of millions of years. Heat from these subducting plates has fed scores of volcanoes in California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia over at least the past 30 million years and is also responsible for activities in the Lassen volcanic area.
Medicine Lake Volcano is a large shield volcano in northeastern California about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Mount Shasta. The volcano is located in a zone of east-west crustal extension east of the main axis of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range. The 0.6-mile (1 km) thick shield is 22 miles (35 km) from east to west and 28 to 31 miles from north to south, and covers more than 770 square miles (2,000 km2). The underlying rock has downwarped by 0.3 miles (0.5 km) under the center of the volcano. The volcano is primarily composed of basalt and basaltic andesite lava flows, and has a 4.3-by-7.5-mile caldera at the center.
The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt is a northwest-southeast trending volcanic chain in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains that extends from Watts Point in the south to the Ha-Iltzuk Icefield in the north. This chain of volcanoes is located in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It forms the northernmost segment of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, which includes Mount St. Helens and Mount Baker. Most volcanoes of the Garibaldi chain are dormant stratovolcanoes and subglacial volcanoes that have been eroded by glacial ice. Less common volcanic landforms include cinder cones, volcanic plugs, lava domes and calderas. These diverse formations were created by different styles of volcanic activity, including Peléan and Plinian eruptions.
In volcanology, a lava dome or volcanic dome is a roughly circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on earth are lava dome forming. The geochemistry of lava domes can vary from basalt to rhyolite although the majority are of intermediate composition The characteristic dome shape is attributed to high viscosity that prevents the lava from flowing very far. This high viscosity can be obtained in two ways: by high levels of silica in the magma, or by degassing of fluid magma. Since viscous basaltic and andesitic domes weather fast and easily break apart by further input of fluid lava, most of the preserved domes have high silica content and consist of rhyolite or dacite.
Bazman is a stratovolcano in a remote desert region of Sistan and Baluchestan Province in south-eastern Iran. A 500-m-wide crater caps the summit of the dominantly andesitic-dacitic volcano, the flanks of which are covered by monogenetic centres especially to the northwest. Bazman is a geologically young volcano which was made in the Quaternary, with the oldest dated rocks being 11.7 million years old and the youngest 0.6 million years. Although no historic eruptions have been reported from Bazman, it does contain fumaroles. Thus Bazman may be regarded as dormant, rather than extinct. Its satellite cones have been the source of basaltic lava flows.
The Slave Craton is an Archaean craton in the north-western Canadian Shield, in Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The Slave Craton includes the 4.03 Ga-old Acasta Gneiss which is one of the oldest dated rocks on Earth. Covering about 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi), it is a relatively small but well-exposed craton dominated by ~2.73–2.63 Ga greenstones and turbidite sequences and ~2.72–2.58 Ga plutonic rocks, with large parts of the craton underlain by older gneiss and granitoid units. The Slave Craton is one of the blocks that compose the Precambrian core of North America, also known as the palaeocontinent Laurentia.
Mathews Tuya is a tuya in northcentral British Columbia. It is one of the six tuyas close to Tuya Lake. It has been partly glaciated and Ar-Ar geochronology shows that is it about 730,000 years old. It mainly comprises palagonitized tephra but also has a few dykes and jointed lava flows on its flanks. The top still has flat-lying lava flows erupted after the tephra pile grew above the surface of the enclosing lake. The other volcanoes in the area include Tuya Butte, South Tuya and Ash Mountain. The volcanoes in the region form part of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province.
Ollagüe or Ullawi is a massive andesite stratovolcano in the Andes on the border between Bolivia and Chile, within the Antofagasta Region of Chile and the Potosi Department of Bolivia. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, its highest summit is 5,868 metres (19,252 ft) above sea level and features a summit crater that opens to the south. The western rim of the summit crater is formed by a compound of lava domes, the youngest of which features a vigorous fumarole that is visible from afar.
Level Mountain is a massive complex volcano in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is located 50 km (31 mi) north-northwest of Telegraph Creek and 60 km (37 mi) west of Dease Lake on the Nahlin Plateau. With a maximum elevation of 2,166 m (7,106 ft), it is the third highest of five large complexes in an extensive north-south trending volcanic zone. Much of the mountain is gently-sloping; when measured from its base, Level Mountain is about 1,100 m (3,600 ft) tall, slightly taller than its neighbour to the northwest, Heart Peaks. The lower broader half of Level Mountain consists of a shield-like edifice while its upper half has a more steep, jagged profile. Its large summit is dominated by the Level Mountain Range, a small mountain range with prominent peaks cut by deep valleys. These valleys serve as a radial drainage for several small streams that flow from the volcano. Meszah Peak is the only named peak in the Level Mountain Range.
The Mount Pleasant Caldera is a large eroded Late Devonian volcanic caldera complex, located in the northern Appalachian Mountains of southwestern New Brunswick, Canada. It is one of few noticeable pre-Cenozoic calderas, and its formation is associated to a period of crustal thinning that followed the Acadian orogeny in the northern Appalachian Mountains. It sits relatively near to the coastline.
Volcán Linzor is a stratovolcano on the border between Bolivia and Chile. In its vicinity lie Laguna Colorada and Cerro del León.
Mount Nansen is a deeply eroded Mid-Cretaceous stratovolcano located 53 km (33 mi) west of Carmacks and 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Victoria Mountain in the central Yukon, Canada. It consists of rhyolite, dacite, andesite flows, breccias and tuff. Mount Nansen was formed during subducting under North America during the Mid-Cretaceous.
The Silverthrone Caldera is a potentially active caldera complex in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located over 350 kilometres (220 mi) northwest of the city of Vancouver and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of Mount Waddington in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The caldera is one of the largest of the few calderas in western Canada, measuring about 30 kilometres (19 mi) long (north-south) and 20 kilometres (12 mi) wide (east-west). Mount Silverthrone, an eroded lava dome on the caldera's northern flank that is 2,864 metres (9,396 ft) high may be the highest volcano in Canada.
Mount Labo, is a potentially active stratovolcano in the province of Camarines Norte, in Region V, on Luzon Island, in the Philippines. It is located at the northwest end of the Bicol Peninsula.
Ceboruco is a dacitic stratovolcano located in Nayarit, Mexico, northwest of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The largest eruption, the Jala Plinian eruption, was around 930 AD ±200, VEI 6, releasing 11 cubic kilometres (2.6 cu mi) of tephra. The most recent and best documented eruption from Ceboruco lasted from 1870–1875, with fumarole activity lasting well into the 20th century. The mountain features one large caldera, created during the Jala eruption, with a smaller crater nested inside that formed when the Dos Equis lava dome collapsed during the Coapales eruption around 1100 AD. Within both of these craters, are several explosive volcanic features, including scoria deposits, lava domes, and pyroclastic domes, or cinder cone volcanoes.
The Canadian Cascade Arc, also called the Canadian Cascades, is the Canadian segment of the North American Cascade Volcanic Arc. Located entirely within the Canadian province of British Columbia, it extends from the Cascade Mountains in the south to the Coast Mountains in the north. Specifically, the southern end of the Canadian Cascades begin at the Canada–United States border. However, the specific boundaries of the northern end are not precisely known and the geology in this part of the volcanic arc is poorly understood. It is widely accepted by geologists that the Canadian Cascade Arc extends through the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains. However, others have expressed concern that the volcanic arc possibly extends further north into the Kitimat Ranges, another subdivision of the Coast Mountains, and even as far north as Haida Gwaii.
The Wrekin Terrane is one of five inferred fault bounded terranes that make up the basement rocks of the southern United Kingdom. The other notable geological terranes are the Charnwood Terrane, Fenland Terrane, Cymru Terrane and the Monian Composite Terrane. The Wrekin Terrane is bounded to the west by the Welsh Borderland Fault System and to the east by the Malvern Lineament. The geological terrane to the west is the Cymru Terrane and to the east is Charnwood Terrane. The majority of rocks in the area are associated with the outcrops that are evident at the faulted boundaries.
The Keli (Qeli) Highland is a volcanic field in Georgia on the western side of the Jvari Pass south to the Greater Caucasus range. More than thirty volcanic edifices on an area of 20x30km2 make up this volcanic field, which consists mostly of monogenetic volcanic structures. The lavas are rhyolites, trachyandesites and andesites.
Nevados de Pastos Grandes is a Miocene volcanic centre in the Puna, Salta province, Argentina. It is a volcanic complex with several centres named El Queva, Gordo and Azufre. Some minor Pleistocene glaciation has affected the volcanic complex.
Archean felsic volcanic rocks are felsic volcanic rocks that were formed in the Archean Eon. The term "felsic" means that the rocks have silica content of 62–78%. Given that the Earth formed at ~4.5 billion year ago, Archean felsic volcanic rocks provide clues on the Earth's first volcanic activities on the Earth's surface started 500 million years after the Earth's formation.