page_title: Bridge River Vent
section_title: Bridge River eruption
hierarchical_section_title: Bridge River Vent / Eruptive history / Bridge River eruption
caption_attribution_description: English: A geologist next to a tree trunk that was buried by ash-fall deposits from the Bridge River eruption of the Mount Meager massif about 2350 years ago, and then overrun by a pyroclastic flow. Its deposit has an unwelded base and a darker, more massive welded layer seen at the top of this photo.
context_page_description: The Bridge River Vent is a volcanic crater in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located 51 km west of Bralorne on the northeastern flank of the Mount Meager massif. With an elevation of 1,524 m, it lies on the steep northern face of Plinth Peak, a 2,677 m high volcanic peak comprising the northern portion of Meager. The vent rises above the western shoulder of the Pemberton Valley and represents the northernmost volcanic feature of the Mount Meager massif.
  At least eight volcanic vents compose the Meager massif, with the Bridge River Vent being the most recent to form. It is the only vent of the massif to exhibit volcanic activity in the past 10,000 years and one of the several vents in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt to erupt since the end of the last glacial period. The crater constitutes a bowl-shaped depression overlain by glacial ice and volcanic debris that were deposited during volcanic activity. Its breached northern rim has been a pathway for lava and ash flows that have traveled throughout the nearby Pemberton Valley.
context_section_description: The Bridge River Vent was formed during an onset of eruptive activity about 2,350 years ago that ended a long period of dormancy at the Mount Meager massif. Substantially, the Bridge River event was explosive in nature, ranging from Plinian to Peléan activity. This is one of the most recent eruptions in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt and the largest known explosive eruption in Canada in the past 10,000 years. It had similarities to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington and the continuous eruption of Soufrière Hills on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean. The eruption, which was likely VEI-5 in nature, included a series of eruptive episodes that created a variety of volcanic deposits. They are exposed in cliff sections near the 209 km (130 mi) long Lillooet River and comprise the Pebble Creek Formation.
caption: A geologist next to a tree trunk that was buried by pyroclastic fall deposits from the Plinian phase of the eruption and then overrun by a pyroclastic flow.
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