Espenberg
Facts
- Seismically Monitored: No
- Color Code: UNASSIGNED
- Alert Level: UNASSIGNED
- Elevation: 243m (797ft)
- Latitude: 66.3493
- Longitude: -164.333
- Smithsonian VNum:
- Pronunciation:
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Nearby Towns:
- Shishmaref 49 mi (78 km) SW
- Deering 49 mi (79 km) SE
- Kotzebue 61 mi (98 km) NE
- Northwest Arctic Borough 61 mi (99 km) NE
- Mary's Igloo 86 mi (138 km) SW
Distance from Anchorage: 563 mi (906 km)
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Subfeatures:
- Devil Mountain Lakes
- South Killeak
- White Fish Lake
- Devil Mtn
Description
From Wood and Kienle (1990) [1] : "These are among the northernmost volcanoes in North America, being just south of the Arctic Circle. The basalt field contains 5 maars and 5 small shield-shaped volcanoes. The shields are of Pleistocene age and form tundra-covered hills as tall as 240 m. The maars are younger than the shields and range in age from >0.12 Ma to ~7,000 yr. The maars are 2 to 5 km in diameter and are filled by lakes with surfaces 60 to 80 m below surrounding topography and as much as 30 m deep. Tholeiitic and alkalic basalt of the maars contains up to several tens of percent xenoliths of basement metamorphic and sedimentary rocks as well as masses of unconsolidated Quaternary sediments which must have been frozen at the time of eruption."Name Origin
"Espenberg maars" is an informal name applied to the group of five maars and 5 shield volcanoes, near Cape Espenberg. Cape Espenberg was named in 1816 by Lt. Otto von Kotzebue for Dr. Karl Espenberg, a surgeon who accompanied Admiral A.J. von Kruzenstern on his voyage around the world in 1803-06 (Orth, 1971).