Capital
Facts
- Official Name: Capital Mountain
- Seismically Monitored: No
- Color Code: UNASSIGNED
- Alert Level: UNASSIGNED
- Elevation: 2356m (7729ft)
- Latitude: 62.4238
- Longitude: -144.1127
- Smithsonian VNum:
- Pronunciation:
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Nearby Towns:
- Slana 20 mi (32 km) NE
- Chistochina 20 mi (32 km) NW
- Mentasta Lake 37 mi (59 km) NE
- Gakona 39 mi (63 km) SW
- Gulkana 42 mi (68 km) SW
Distance from Anchorage: 206 mi (332 km)
Description
From Wood and Kienle (1990) [1] : "Capital Mountain is a relatively small andesitic shield volcano with a roughly circular summit caldera 4 km in diameter. The shield consists chiefly of lava flows and subordinate volcaniclastic rocks that dip 3 to 25 degrees away from the summit area. The caldera, apparently of non-explosive origin, is filled with thick, flat-lying flows. Talus, flow breccias, and pillow lavas occur locally between the caldera wall and intracaldera flows. A prominent andesite plug, 100 m high, marks the general center of an area of post-caldera-fill activity and is the locus of a spectacular radial dike swarm. Shield and intracaldera lavas are chiefly hypersthene andesite, but shield lavas range in composition from basalt to dacite. Dikes are also chiefly andesite; one prominent rhyolite dike originating from a small rhyolite laccolith extends almost completely across the volcano."Name Origin
The name Capital Mountain was recorded by T.G. Gerdine as a local name (Mendenhall, 1905; Orth, 1971).