Shasta volcano, United States
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Shasta volcano, United States
Mount Shasta in northern California, seen here from the SE, is the largest of the Cascade stratovolcanoes and is constructed of at least four overlapping volcanoes.
Hotlum cone, which marks the summit, and the flank Shastina and Black Buttes lava domes were formed during the Holocene.
Mount Shasta has been frequently active throughout the Holocene.
The only historical eruption of Shasta was observed from off the coast of California by the French explorer La Perouse in 1786.
The most voluminous of the Cascade volcanoes, northern California's Mount Shasta is a massive compound stratovolcano composed of at least four main edifices constructed over a period of at least 590,000 years.
An ancestral Shasta volcano was destroyed by one of Earth's largest known Quaternary subaerial debris avalanches, which filled the Shasta River valley NW of the volcano.
The Hotlum cone, forming the present summit, and the Shastina lava dome complex were constructed during the early Holocene, as was the SW flank Black Butte lava dome.
Eruptions from these vents have produced pyroclastic flows and mudflows that affected areas as far as 20 km from the summit.
Eruptions from Hotlum cone continued throughout the Holocene.
Shasta's only historical eruption was observed from the ship of the explorer La Perouse off the California coast in 1786.
PHOTO SOURCE: Photo by Lyn Topinka, 1984 (U.S. Geological Survey), courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Global Volcanism Program, used with permission.
NOTE: The information regarding Volcano on this page is re-published from other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Volcano information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Volcano photos should be addressed to the copyright owner noted below the photo.
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