Haddington Island (french: île Haddington) is a small

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, located south of

Malcolm Island Malcolm Island is an island in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located north of Haddington Island in the Queen Charlotte Strait near Vancouver Island. It has ferry access from the Vancouver Island community of Port McNeill Port M ...

and Broughton Strait. It is located in the Mount Waddington Regional District. The closest major community to Haddington Island is

Port McNeill Port McNeill is a town in the North Island region of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada with a population of 2,356 (2021). Located on Vancouver Island's north-east shore on Queen Charlotte Strait, it was originally a base camp for logger ...

Geology

Haddington Island is a member in the chain of eroded volcanoes that run from

Brooks Peninsula ''Parts of this article have been adapted from thBC Parks website'' Mquqʷin/Brooks Peninsula Provincial Park is a provincial park located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. History As a result of land-use plann ...

northeastward across Vancouver Island to

, called the Alert Bay Volcanic Belt. The existence of

felsite Felsite is a very fine-grained volcanic rock that may or may not contain larger crystals. Felsite is a field term for a light-colored rock that typically requires petrographic examination or chemical analysis for more precise definition. Color ...

and

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

at Haddington Island suggests it might have formed 3.7 million years ago as the

Juan de Fuca Juan de Fuca (10 June 1536, Cefalonia 23 July 1602, Cefalonia)Greek Consulate of Vancouver,Greek Pioneers: Juan de Fuca. was a Greek pilot who served PhilipII of Spain. He is best known for his claim to have explored the Strait of Aniánnow k ...

and

Explorer Plate The Explorer Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, which is partially subducted under the North American Plate. Along with the Juan de Fuca Plate and Gorda Plate, the Explor ...

to its west

subducted Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

under the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacif ...

at the

Cascadia subduction zone The Cascadia subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from northern Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California in the United States. It is a very long, sloping subduction zone where the Explorer, Juan de Fuca, a ...

. As the ocean crust of the Juan de Fuca and the Explorer Plate melts, it creates

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...

that penetrates the crust, causing periodic eruptions of the volcanoes. The western end of the Alert Bay Volcanic Belt is now approximately northeast of the

Nootka Fault The Nootka Fault is an active transform fault running southwest from Nootka Island, near Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Geology The Nootka Fault lies between the Explorer Plate in the north and Juan de Fuca Plate in south. These a ...

, which separates the Explorer and Juan de Fuca plates. However, at the time of its formation Haddington Island may have been coincident with the subducted plate boundary. Also, the timing of volcanism corresponds to shifts of plate motion and changes in the locus of volcanism along the Pemberton and

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

volcanic fronts. This brief interval of plate motion adjustment approximately 3.5 million years ago may have triggered the generation of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

ic magma along the descending plate edge. Although commonly referred to as andesite, by chemical composition the Haddington Island volcanic rocks are in fact

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite ...

. The rock has a very fine grained to

aphanitic Aphanites (adj. ''aphanitic''; ) are igneous rocks that are so fine-grained that their component mineral crystals are not visible to the naked eye (in contrast to phanerites, in which the crystals are visible to the unaided eye). This geolog ...

texture, and has a light blue-grey to a warm brown-grey range in colour. The

groundmass The matrix or groundmass of a rock is the finer-grained mass of material in which larger grains, crystals, or clasts are embedded. The matrix of an igneous rock consists of finer-grained, often microscopic, crystals in which larger crystals, ...

comprises 80-85%

plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more pro ...

feldspar, with lesser

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

, biotite and

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With th ...

. Small, 1–2 mm plagioclase

phenocryst 300px, feldspathic phenocrysts. This granite, from the Switzerland">Swiss side of the Mont Blanc massif, has large white plagioclase phenocrysts, triclinic minerals that give trapezoid shapes when cut through). 1 euro coins, 1 euro coin (diameter ...

s are distributed through the rock mass, and form approximately 1% of its volume.

Quarrying

The grey to bluff andesite on Haddington Island is considered by many to be British Columbia's finest building stone because it is easily profiled and carved. Some of British Columbia's landmark buildings were faced with Haddington Island

, including the

Hotel Vancouver The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, formerly and still informally called the Hotel Vancouver, is a historic hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. Located along West Georgia Street the hotel is situated within the city's Financial District, in Downtow ...

and the

British Columbia Parliament Buildings The British Columbia Parliament Buildings are located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and are home to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The Speaker and the Serjeant-at-Arms are amongst those responsible for the legislative ...

.Natural Landscape Stones - Bedrock Granite Sales, Andesite, Basalt, Rhyolite, Sandstone - Vancouver, BC, Canada
/ref> Further information on the historic use of andesite on buildings in Vancouver can be found in the article ''Andesite'' i
Vancouver Matters, BlueImprint Books, 2008 by Rob Brownie and Annabel Vaughan
The Haddington Island Quarry initially operated between 1896 and 1966. It was reopened in 2004 by Haddington Island Stoneworks of Vancouver, BC.

History

The island was named after Thomas Haddington. A provincial ferry, the Queen of Prince Rupert, ran up on the rocks here in 1967.

References

{{coord, 50.6015, N, 127.0227, W, display=title Volcanoes of British Columbia Islands of British Columbia Central Coast of British Columbia

Geology

Quarrying

History

See also

References