How are Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta related to subduction?

How are Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta related to subduction?

The Gorda Plate is subducting under the North American Plate north of Cape Mendocino and is the cause of the state’s two active volcanoes, Mt Shasta and Mt. Lassen. Immediately north, the Juan de Fuca Plate is subducting under North America and is responsible for the Cascade Range Volcanoes.

What type of plate boundary is associated with Mt Lassen and Mt Shasta?

transform boundary
The northerly side is a transform boundary with the Juan de Fuca Plate, the Blanco Fracture Zone. The subducting Gorda Plate is connected with the volcanoes in northern California, namely, Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak.

How did Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak form?

Lassen Peak and its neighboring lava domes are not typical, conical “stratovolcanoes” like Mount Shasta or Mount Rainier. Those large volcanoes were formed by repeated eruptions of lava and ash from a central summit vent over tens of thousands of years.

How are volcanoes formed by subduction?

A subduction volcano forms when continental and oceanic crust collide. The oceanic crust melts and migrates upwards until it erupts on the surface, creating a volcano.

What is an example of a subduction boundary?

An oceanic plate can descend beneath another oceanic plate – Japan, Indonesia, and the Aleutian Islands are examples of this type of subduction. Subduction zones are marked by a deep sea trench – where the lithosphere bends downward – and a parallel chain of volcanoes.

Why are there no volcanoes in California?

This spreading and subduction continues north along the length of South and Central America and up the west coast of Mexico, where it runs up the Gulf of California. But, because there is no ripping apart or subduction taking place along a transform fault, there isn’t any magma formation to lead to volcanoes.

What are examples of subduction zones?

Subduction zones occur all around the edge of the Pacific Ocean, offshore of Washington, Canada, Alaska, Russia, Japan and Indonesia. Called the “Ring of Fire,” these subduction zones are responsible for the world’s biggest earthquakes, the most terrible tsunamis and some of the worst volcanic eruptions.

Why are volcanoes at subduction zones explosive?

The magmas in subduction zone volcanoes are often explosive, because they arrive at the surface as very sticky (viscous) and gas rich.

Are there super volcanoes in California?

Scientists have discovered 240 cubic miles of semi-molten magma below the Long Valley Caldera, a supervolcano in eastern California near Mammoth Mountain. The supervolcano erupted 760,000 years ago and blanketed land within a 30-mile radius in hot ash.

Is there a volcano under California?

At least seven California volcanoes—Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Shasta, Lassen Volcanic Center, Clear Lake Volcanic Field, Long Valley Volcanic Region, Coso Volcanic Field, and Salton Buttes – have partially molten rock (magma) deep within their roots, and research on past eruptions indicates they will erupt again in …

Where did Lassen and Shasta volcanoes come from?

Lassen and Shasta are 2 of the southernmost volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Like all Cascade volcanoes, they formed as a consequence of the subduction of three oceanic plates (the Juan de Fuca, Explorer and Gorda Plates, all of which are remnants of the much larger Farallon Plate) under the North American Plate, along the Cascadia subduction zone.

How are the rocks of the Sierra Nevada related to subduction?

Explain what the rocks of the Sierra Nevadas tell geologists about the geologic history of California. The rocks of the Sierra Nevada’s tell geologists tell that the Sierra Nevada’s were magma about 210 million and 100 million years ago. Explain how the formation of Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta are related to subduction.

How are volcanoes formed at the subduction plate boundary?

The Cascades form above the line where the subducting plate extends to depths where it heats up, dehydrates and causes magma to form. The line of active volcanoes, from Mt. Garibaldi to Lassen Peak, coincides with the north-to-south extent of the subducting plate boundary.

How are the Cascade Mountains and the subduction zone different?

But parks in the Cascade Mountains – within the same subduction zone – are dramatically different. They contain explosive volcanoes formed as fluids rise from the top of the subducting plate and generate magma as they melt their way to the surface.