Lava Fork

Last updated
Lava Fork
Location
Country Canada, United States
Province/State British Columbia, Alaska
Physical characteristics
Mouth Blue River (Alaska)
  location
Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska
  coordinates
56°18′48″N130°51′55″W / 56.31333°N 130.86528°W / 56.31333; -130.86528

Lava Fork is a creek in northwestern British Columbia, Canada and the Alaska Panhandle, United States. It lies west of the Unuk River and northwest of Stewart. It flows south from the Lava Lakes across the British Columbia-Alaska border into the Blue River [1] [2] in the extreme northern part of Misty Fjords National Monument.

The Volcano, a cinder cone about 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the British Columbia-Alaska border in northwestern British Columbia, is the source for lava flows that overwhelm the Canadian and American sides of the creek, hence the creek's name.

See also

Related Research Articles

Lava Forks Provincial Park is a provincial park in northern British Columbia, Canada. It is the site of Canada's most recent volcanic eruption, which occurred in 1904 at Lava Fork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province</span> Geologic province in the Pacific Northwest of North America

The Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province (NCVP), formerly known as the Stikine Volcanic Belt, is a geologic province defined by the occurrence of Miocene to Holocene volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest of North America. This belt of volcanoes extends roughly north-northwest from northwestern British Columbia and the Alaska Panhandle through Yukon to the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area of far eastern Alaska, in a corridor hundreds of kilometres wide. It is the most recently defined volcanic province in the Western Cordillera. It has formed due to extensional cracking of the North American continent—similar to other on-land extensional volcanic zones, including the Basin and Range Province and the East African Rift. Although taking its name from the Western Cordillera, this term is a geologic grouping rather than a geographic one. The southmost part of the NCVP has more, and larger, volcanoes than does the rest of the NCVP; further north it is less clearly delineated, describing a large arch that sways westward through central Yukon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoodoo Mountain</span> Stratovolcano in British Columbia, Canada

Hoodoo Mountain, sometimes referred to as Hoodoo Volcano, is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is located 25 kilometres northeast of the Alaska–British Columbia border on the north side of the Iskut River opposite of the mouth of the Craig River. With a summit elevation of 1,850 metres and a topographic prominence of 900 metres, Hoodoo Mountain is one of many prominent peaks within the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. Its flat-topped summit is covered by an ice cap more than 100 metres thick and at least 3 kilometres in diameter. Two valley glaciers surrounding the northwestern and northeastern sides of the mountain have retreated significantly over the last hundred years. They both originate from a large icefield to the north and are the sources of two meltwater streams. These streams flow along the western and eastern sides of the volcano before draining into the Iskut River.

Tuya Butte is a tuya in the Tuya Range of north-central British Columbia, Canada. It is a bit less isolated from other ranges than neighbouring Mount Josephine. Some of the other volcanoes in the area include South Tuya, Ash Mountain, and Mathews Tuya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heart Peaks</span> Massif in British Columbia, Canada

Heart Peaks, originally known as the Heart Mountains, is a mountain massif in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is 90 km (56 mi) northwest of the small community of Telegraph Creek and just southwest of Callison Ranch. With a maximum elevation of 2,012 m (6,601 ft), it rises above the surrounding landscape on the Nahlin Plateau, which is part of the western Stikine Plateau. Heart Peaks has been an area of prospecting since the 1980s with the discovery of precious metals.

The Atlin Volcanic Field, also called the Llangorse Volcanic Field and the Surprise Lake Volcanic Field, is a group of late-Pleistocene to Holocene cinder cones that lies on the Teslin Plateau east of Atlin Lake, Canada. The largest volcanic feature is the 1880-m-high Ruby Mountain which has been partially dissected by Pleistocene and post-Wisconsin glaciation. Two basaltic cinder cones at the heads of Cracker Creek and Volcanic Creek lie within glacially dissected U-shaped valleys and may be of postglacial age.

Volcanic Creek Cone is a small cinder cone 20 kilometres northeast of Atlin in northwestern British Columbia. There are two cinder cones and a lava flow at least 3 kilometres long which is present below parts of the tree covered area. The subdued form of Volcanic Creek cone is visible directly below the largest snow patch. The cone has probably suffered through at least one glacial episode. Volcanic Creek cone is part of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province.

Cracker Creek Cone is a small cinder cone in northwestern British Columbia. A large lava flow that partly filled Ruby Creek may have originated from this cone. The lower west side of the cone appears to be partly covered by glacial till suggesting that the cone is older than the most recent glacial advances down Ruby Creek. Cracker Creek Cone is in the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province and is one of the three young volcanic cones in the Atlin Volcanic Field.

The Iskut volcanic field is a group of volcanoes and lava flows on and adjacent to the Alaska–British Columbia border in the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. All the volcanoes in this volcanic field are situated in British Columbia along the Iskut and Unuk rivers and their tributaries, with lava flows having reached Alaska. The oldest volcanoes in the Iskut volcanic field are Little Bear Mountain and Hoodoo Mountain, which are 146,000 and 85,000 years old, respectively. Younger volcanic centres include Second Canyon, King Creek, Tom MacKay Creek, Snippaker Creek, Iskut Canyon, Cone Glacier, Cinder Mountain and Lava Fork, all of which formed in the last 70,000 years. All of the volcanoes are mafic in composition except for Hoodoo Mountain which consists of peralkaline rocks. The latest volcanic eruption took place from the Lava Fork volcano in 1800, although an uncertain 1904 eruption is also attributed to this volcano.

Cinder Mountain is a partly eroded cinder cone at the head of Snippaker Creek, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of the Iskut-Unuk River Cones and is the source of a basaltic lava flow that extends 4 km (2 mi) north into Copper King Creek. An isolated pile of subaerial basalt flows and associated pillow lava rest on varved clay and till in King Creek. Cinder Mountain last erupted during the Pleistocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volcanism of Canada</span> Volcanic activity in Canada

Volcanic activity is a major part of the geology of Canada and is characterized by many types of volcanic landform, including lava flows, volcanic plateaus, lava domes, cinder cones, stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes, submarine volcanoes, calderas, diatremes, and maars, along with less common volcanic forms such as tuyas and subglacial mounds.

Prindle Volcano is an isolated basaltic cinder cone located in eastern Alaska, United States, in the headwaters of the East Fork of the Fortymile River, approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Tok, Alaska. The cone is fresh-looking and has a base approximately 900 metres wide. It is the northwesternmost expression of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. The cinder cone, and an approximately 11-kilometre (6.8-mile) long lava flow which breached the margin of the cone, erupted in the Pleistocene approximately 176,000 years ago. The lava flow extends to the southeast, then turns southwest and continues in a river valley.

Maitland Volcano is a heavily eroded shield volcano in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is 83 km (52 mi) southeast of the small community of Telegraph Creek in what is now the Klappan Range of the northern Skeena Mountains. This multi-vent volcano covered a remarkably large area and was topped by a younger volcanic edifice. Little remains of Maitland Volcano today, limited only to eroded lava flows and distinctive upstanding landforms created when magma hardened within the vents of the volcano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volcanism of Northern Canada</span> History of volcanic activity in Northern Canada

Volcanism of Northern Canada has produced hundreds of volcanic areas and extensive lava formations across Northern Canada. The region's different volcano and lava types originate from different tectonic settings and types of volcanic eruptions, ranging from passive lava eruptions to violent explosive eruptions. Northern Canada has a record of very large volumes of magmatic rock called large igneous provinces. They are represented by deep-level plumbing systems consisting of giant dike swarms, sill provinces and layered intrusions.

Anderson Bay is a bay of Atlin Lake in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located southwest of Pike Bay.

Walkout Creek Cone is a cinder cone in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is one of the volcanoes that produced young basaltic lava flows in the central portion of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex in the past 10,000 years. These basaltic lava flows form a volcanic field called the Snowshoe Lava Field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Volcano (British Columbia)</span> Mountain in British Columbia, Canada

The Volcano, also known as Lava Fork volcano, is a small cinder cone in the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located approximately 60 km (40 mi) northwest of the small community of Stewart near the head of Lava Fork. With a summit elevation of 1,656 m (5,433 ft) and a topographic prominence of 311 m (1,020 ft), it rises above the surrounding rugged landscape on a remote mountain ridge that represents the northern flank of a glaciated U-shaped valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volcanic history of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province</span>

The volcanic history of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province presents a record of volcanic activity in northwestern British Columbia, central Yukon and the U.S. state of easternmost Alaska. The volcanic activity lies in the northern part of the Western Cordillera of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Extensional cracking of the North American Plate in this part of North America has existed for millions of years. Continuation of this continental rifting has fed scores of volcanoes throughout the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province over at least the past 20 million years and occasionally continued into geologically recent times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Cascade Arc</span> Canadian segment of the North American Cascade Volcanic Arc

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.

References

  1. "Lava Fork". BC Geographical Names .
  2. "Lava Fork". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.