MEDICINE
LAKE VOLCANO
Medicine Lake Volcano (see
photo) is a shield volcano in far-northern California, USA. It is
associated with the Cascade Range of stratovolcanoes. The Cascade Range
stretches from northern California to Oregon to Washington State, and into
southwestern British Columbia. It formed
by subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate underneath the North American Plate.
Medicine Lake Volcano has erupted a variety of materials that include basalt,
andesite, rhyolite, dacite, obsidian, and pumice.
The rocks shown below are airfall pumice pieces from a
~1065 A.D. eruption at the Glass Mountain eruptive center, on the eastern side
of Medicine Lake Volcano.
Airfall pumice from the ~1065 A.D. eruption of Medicine Lake Volcano’s
Glass Mountain eruptive center, northern California, USA.
(pale-colored pumice at upper right is 2.7 cm long)