Lava Fork volcano is located immediately north of the British Columbia-Alaska border in northwestern British Columbia, approximately 60 km northwest of the town of Stewart. The volcano is one of 10 found along or near the Iskut River. The deposits at Lava Fork comprise mainly basaltic lava flows, which erupted from a vent high up on the side of a glaciated, U-shaped valley and flowed south 5 km where they crossed the border into Alaska and dammed the Blue River, forming several small lakes. In total, the lava flows are approximately 22 km long.
The vent area has small deposits of sulfur precipitated from volcanic gases and volcanic bombs up to 0.5 m long. The surface of the lava flows still have well preserved flow features such as pressure ridges and lava channels, as well as pits formed when the overlying solidified lava collapsed into underlying lava tubes. In many areas, large trees were engulfed by the lava flows and are now found embedded in the top of the flows.
At least two different episodes of eruption produced the basaltic lava flows at the Lava Fork vent. On the basis of tree-ring-core dating and 14C dating, the youngest of these lava flows is probably only 150 years old. This makes Lava Fork the youngest known volcano in Canada. Because the Iskut region is so remote and the style of eruption involves basically passive, fluid lava flows, future eruptions from Lava Fork pose little threat. Damming of local water courses may disrupt fish habitat and spawning grounds, but ash clouds are unlikely to be high enough to disrupt international jet traffic. They could potentially threaten lower flying aircraft along the northern coastal corridor between Vancouver and Alaska.
Lava Fork | |
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Type of volcanic feature: | Cinder cone |
Additional volcanic features: | Scoria cone, air-fall deposits, and lava flows |
Region: | British Columbia |
Volcanic belt: | Stikine volcanic belt |
Area: | Iskut-unuk River Cones |
Latitude: | 56.42 N |
Longitude: | 130.85 W |
Age of last eruption: | < 150 Years Ago |
Oldest known eruption: | > 350 Years ago |
Summit elevation: | 1330 m |
Base elevation: | 100 m |
Estimated volume erupted: | 2.2 km3 |