Bennett Lake Volcanic Complex | |
---|---|
Geography | |
Location | British Columbia/Yukon, Canada |
Parent range | Boundary Ranges, Coast Mountains |
Geology | |
Age of rock | 50 million years |
Mountain type | Caldera |
Last eruption | Eocene |
The Bennett Lake Volcanic Complex (BLVC) is a huge 50-million-year-old extinct caldera complex that spans across the British Columbia-Yukon border in Canada. It is located near the western end of the West Arm of Bennett Lake. The caldera complex is surrounded by granitic rocks containing pendants.
It is located near the eastern contact of the Coast Plutonic Complex and the Whitehorse Trough. There are thick series of pyroclastic and epiclastic rocks at the caldera. Remnants of this huge caldera complex are preserved near Bennett Lake in the Coast Mountains. The complex compose the Skukum Group.
The Bennett Lake Volcanic Complex was formed when the ancient Kula Plate was subducting under North America during the early Eocene period. [1] Cataclysmic eruptions from the Bennett Lake Volcanic Complex were from vents along arcuate fracture systems that ejected out about 850 km3 (200 cu mi) of glowing avalanches of pyroclastic rock called pyroclastic flows. Evacuation of the underlying magma chamber was followed by several stages of collapse to form two calderas, one nested inside the other, that produced an elliptical depression 19 km (12 mi) by 30 km (19 mi) across. [1] The calderas were from 200 m (656 ft) to 2,700 m (8,858 ft) deep. Volcanism continued for some time after the caldera collapse. High level andesite and rhyolite dikes and intrusive bodies crosscut volcanic flows and tuffs at all levels. Dike swarms are emplaced along ring fractures and fault zones at the southwest edge of the caldera. Near the dying stages of the volcano, magma surged upward and arched the roof of the magma chamber into a broad dome with relief of about 1,500 m (4,921 ft).
A caldera is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the structural integrity of such a chamber, greatly diminishing its capacity to support its own roof, and any substrate or rock resting above. The ground surface then collapses into the emptied or partially emptied magma chamber, leaving a large depression at the surface. Although sometimes described as a crater, the feature is actually a type of sinkhole, as it is formed through subsidence and collapse rather than an explosion or impact. Compared to the thousands of volcanic eruptions that occur over the course of a century, the formation of a caldera is a rare event, occurring only a few times within a given window of 100 years. Only eight caldera-forming collapses are known to have occurred between 1911 and 2018, with a caldera collapse at Kīlauea, Hawaii in 2018. Volcanoes that have formed a caldera are sometimes described as "caldera volcanoes".
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