Aspen Butte is a steep-sided shield volcano in the Cascade Range of southern

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. It is located south of Pelican Butte and southeast of Mount McLoughlin. It rises over above the nearby shore of

Upper Klamath Lake Upper Klamath Lake (sometimes called Klamath Lake) ( Klamath: ?ews, "lake" ) is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south-central Oregon in the United States. The largest body of fresh water by surface area in Oregon, it ...

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

glaciers carved three large

cirques A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

into the north and northeast flanks of the mountain removing most of the original summit area including any evidence of a crater. The summit is now the high point along the curving ridge which bounds the southern edge of the cirques above steep cliffs. Aspen Butte is the highest of four overlapping shield volcanoes within the Mountain Lakes Wilderness all of which have been carved to varying degrees by glaciers. The other volcanoes are Mount Harriman, Crater Mountain and Greylock Mountain. Another peak, Mount Carmine, which lies just over to the north of Aspen Butte, is actually not a separate volcano but the highest remnant of the north flank of the Aspen Butte volcano separated from it by two glacial cirques. Little Aspen Butte, a

satellite cone A parasitic cone (also adventive cone or satellite cone) is the cone-shaped accumulation of volcanic material not part of the central vent of a volcano. It forms from eruptions from fractures on the flank of the volcano. These fractures occur ...

, rises on the southern flanks of the main volcano separated from it by a pass.

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