Mount Sanford
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| Mount Sanford | |
|---|---|
 Mount Sanford (left) in 1981 |
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| Elevation | 16,237 feet (4,949 meters) |
| Location | Alaska, USA |
| Range | Wrangell Mountains |
| Coordinates | |
| Topo map | USGS |
| Type | Shield volcano |
| Age of rock | Holocene |
| Last eruption | 320,000 bp |
| First ascent | 1938 by Terris Moore and Bradford Washburn |
| Easiest route | Sheep Glacier Route |
Mount Sanford is a shield volcano which lies in eastern Alaska near the Copper River and is one of the tallest volcanoes in North America. It is mainly composed of andesite, and is an ancient peak, being mostly of Pleistocene age, although some of the upper parts of the mountain may be of Holocene age. The mountain was named in 1885 by Lt. Henry T. Allen of the U.S. Army after the Sanford family (Allen was a descendant of Reuben Sanford).
The south face of the volcano, at the head of the Sanford Glacier, rises 8,000 ft in one mile (2,400 m in 1,600 m) resulting in one of the steepest gradients in North America.
The mountain first began developing 900,000 years ago, when it began growing on top of three smaller shield volcanoes that had coalesced. Two notable events in the mountain's history include a large lava flow which traveled some 18 km to the north east of the peak, and a flow erupted from a rift zone on the flank of the volcano some 320,000 years ago, which was basaltic in nature, marking the most recent dated activity of the volcano. The flow was dated using radiometric methods.
[edit] Recent history
On March 12, 1948, Northwest Airlines Flight 4422 crashed into Mount Sanford. All 24 passengers and 6 crew members were killed. The wreckage was quickly covered by snow and was not found again until 1999.
[edit] Sources
- Siebert, L. and T. Simkin (2002-). Volcanoes of the World: an Illustrated Catalog of Holocene Volcanoes and their Eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3. URL: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/
- Alaska Volcano Observatory
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