Edgecumbe


Facts


  • Official Name: Mount Edgecumbe
  • Seismically Monitored: Yes
  • Color Code: GREEN
  • Alert Level: NORMAL
  • Elevation: 976m (3202ft)
  • Latitude: 57.0509
  • Longitude: -135.7611
  • Smithsonian VNum: 315040
  • Pronunciation:
  • Nearby Towns:
    • Sitka 16 mi (26 km) NE
    • Tenakee Springs 54 mi (87 km) NE
    • Angoon 54 mi (87 km) NE
    • Pelican 65 mi (105 km) NW
    • Kake 68 mi (110 km) SE
  • Subfeatures:
    • Crater Ridge
    • Shell Mtn

Description

From Wood and Kienle (1990) [1] : "The Edgecumbe volcanic field on southern Kruzof Island is on the North American plate 10-15 km inboard of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather transform fault. The Edgecumbe volcanic field is dominated by the symmetric stratovolcano of Mount Edgecumbe and the domes and crater of adjacent Crater Ridge. Mount Edgecumbe was named by Captain James Cook in 1778. The basal shield comprises ~35 cubic km and consists of basalt, basaltic andesite, and andesite lava flows and breccias. The composite cone of Mount Edgecumbe is dominantly of andesite composition and has a volume of ~3.5 cubic km. The low-silica rhyolite domes of Crater Ridge also contain ~3.5 cubic km of magma.
"The latest significant eruptive activity was postglacial and produced voluminous pyroclastic deposits (7.6 cubic km dense-rock equivalent). The main geomorphic features of the Edgecumbe volcanic field were formed during this activity and include basaltic andesite scoria cones, a crater explosively reamed from the Crater Ridge domes during eruptions of rhyolitic pyroclastic flows, and eruption of andesite and dacite tephra during dome emplacement and crater formation on the Mount Edgecumbe cone. Tephra deposits produced by the late Pleistocene-early Holocene activity of the Edgecumbe volcanic field have been found as far away as Juneau and Lituya Bay, 200 km to the north. Vents active during the pyroclastic eruptions have a northeast-southwest alignment that probably marks a regional fissure."

Name Origin

Mount Edgecumbe was named in 1778 by Captain James Cook, "probably after Mt. Edgecumbe at the entrance of Plymouth Harbor, England, or possibly after George, the first Earl of Edgecumbe. The name was adopted by Vancouver" (Wagner, 1937). This feature was also called "Montana de San Jacinto," or "Saint Jacinto Mountain," on August 16, 1775, by Don Juan de la Bodega y Quadra, "in honor of the saint whose day it was" (Wagner, 1937). Lt. Sarychev (1826) called it "Gora Svataya Lazarya," or "Saint Lazarus Mountain (Orth, 1971).


References Cited

[1] Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada, 1990

Wood, C. A., and Kienle, Juergen, (eds.), 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: New York, Cambridge University Press, 354 p.

Current Activity

No new updates for Edgecumbe volcano since February 9, 2024, 10:57 am.

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