page_title: Mount Edziza volcanic complex
section_title: Eruptive history
hierarchical_section_title: Mount Edziza volcanic complex / Geology / Eruptive history
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of the Armadillo Peak caldera in northern British Columbia, Canada.
context_page_description: The Mount Edziza volcanic complex is a large and potentially active north-south trending complex volcano in Stikine Country, northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located 38 kilometres southeast of the small community of Telegraph Creek. It occupies the southeastern portion of the Tahltan Highland, an upland area of plateau and lower mountain ranges, lying east of the Boundary Ranges and south of the Inklin River, which is the east fork of the Taku River. As a volcanic complex, it consists of many types of volcanoes, including shield volcanoes, calderas, lava domes, stratovolcanoes, and cinder cones.
  Most of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex is encompassed within a large provincial park called Mount Edziza Provincial Park. Named after Mount Edziza, this 2,660.95 km² park was established in 1972 to preserve the volcanic and cultural treasures unique to the northern British Columbia area. The Mount Edziza volcanic complex is remote, and, without roads, accessible only along trails. The easiest access is from Highway 37 and a spur road from Dease Lake to Telegraph Creek.
context_section_description: The lava domes, calderas, stratovolcanoes, subglacial mounds and cinder cones forming the volcanic complex were constructed in five phases, each of which began with the effusion of dark olivine basalt which formed the flat-lying shield volcanoes and concluded with the eruption of light-coloured magma. This cyclical behavior is attributed to the episodic rise of basic, mantle-derived alkali basalt both to the surface and partly into crustal reservoirs where the light-coloured magmas with very little aluminum were created by prolonged crystal fractionation. The silica-rich trachyte and comendite lavas are similar to those associated with the most violent eruptions on Earth.
caption: Armadillo Peak caldera
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