Dragon Cone

Dragon Cone
Highest point
Elevation 1,830 m (6,000 ft)
Coordinates 52°15′N 120°03′W / 52.25°N 120.05°W / 52.25; -120.05
Geography
Location British Columbia, Canada
Parent range Cariboo Mountains
Geology
Age of rock Holocene
Mountain type Cinder cone
Volcanic arc/belt Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field
Last eruption 7560 BP

Dragon Cone is a monogenetic cinder cone located in Wells Gray Provincial Park in east-central British Columbia. It is the source of a 15 km (9 mi) long lava flow, called Dragon's Tongue. This lava covered the floor of narrow Falls Creek Valley and terminated at the Clearwater River, damming it to a height of 3 m (10 ft) and raising the level of existing Clearwater Lake upstream. Geologists have recovered some peat buried by the lava and radiocarbon dating produced an age of 7560 years plus or minus 100 years.[1] Flows from nearby Flourmill Cone, Kostal Cone and Spanish Lake Cones rest on glaciated bedrock without an intervening paleosol, suggesting an early Holocene age.

Visits to Dragon Cone are very rare due to difficult access. The nearest trail is the overgrown Kostal Lake Trail, over 5 km (3.1 mi) to the south. Falls Creek is impassable for boats. The cone is best viewed from the air, but float plane landings on nearby Ray Lake are not permitted.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hickson, Cathie with Hollinger, Jason (2014). Wells Gray Rocks. Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC.
  2. ↑ Neave, Roland (2015). Exploring Wells Gray Park, 6th edition. Wells Gray Tours, Kamloops, BC. ISBN 978-0-9681932-2-8.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, January 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.