December 23, 2024

Mysteries Beneath the Snow: Unraveling the Secrets of the Snowshoe Lava Field

Functions in this northern British Columbia volcanic area draw their names from a few of our preferred wintry things.Pack some winter season shoes and a couple of hot drinks for this volcanic tour in northwestern Canada. The stratovolcanoes, cinder cones, and lava domes in this area were created in a series of eruptive cycles over numerous million years.Capturing the Volcanic TerrainLandsat 9s OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) recorded this image of the Snowshoe Lava Field and the surrounding volcanic surface on October 26, 2023. Its slopes were a source of obsidian that was traded regionally as early as 10,000 years ago.A Young Volcanic FieldThe Snowshoe Lava Field, extending south and southwest from Ice Peak, is among the more youthful features in the Mount Edziza volcanic complex; it formed in the most recent volcanic cycle within the past 20,000 years.