Nazko cone: a Quaternary volcano in the eastern Anahim Belt

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Souther, J. G., Clague, J. J., Mathewes, R. W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1987
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e87-232; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e87-232

Nazko cone, located in central British Columbia at the eastern end of the Anahim Volcanic Belt, is the product of at least three episodes of Quaternary volcanic activity. An eroded Pleistocene subaerial flow at the base of the pile is overlain by a subglacial mound of hyaloclastite that is, in turn, partly covered by a younger composite pyroclastic cone and associated lava flows. A whole-rock K–Ar date of 0.34 ± 0.03 Ma on the oldest flow is consistent with a hotspot model for the Anahim Belt and implies absolute late Neogene motion of 2.6 cm/year for North America. The hyaloclastite mound was erupted beneath the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Late Pleistocene, perhaps during the Fraser Glaciation (25 000 – 10 000 years BP). Radiocarbon dates from peat above and below Nazko tephra in a bog near the cone suggest that the volcano last erupted about 7200 years BP.Nazko basalt has 10–15% normative nepheline and is classified as basanite. This is significantly more undersaturated than basalts farther west in the Anahim Belt and may indicate an eastward shift toward a deeper or less depleted mantle source.