Mount Anderson is a peak in the

Olympic Mountains The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high – Mount Olympus is the highest at ; however, the easte ...

of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

. Rising in the center of

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

state, it is the second highest peak on the Anderson Massif, after West Peak. Anderson Glacier used to be located in a cirque on the mountain's southern flank while

Eel Glacier Eel Glacier is located to the north of Mount Anderson and east of West Peak, in Olympic National Park in the U.S. state of Washington. The northward-facing glacier starts at about in elevation, with an arm extending up to . As the glacier flows ...

is in another cirque, northwest of the summit.

Hanging Glacier A hanging glacier originates high on the wall of a glacial valley and descends only part of the way to the surface of the main glacier and abruptly stops, typically at a cliff. Avalanching and icefall An icefall is a portion of certain glaciers ...

is on the east side of a ridge which extends north from the peak. Anderson is at the center of three major watersheds in the Olympic Range. Most of the water which falls on the massif flows into the Dosewallips River which drains, by way of the

Hood Canal Hood Canal is a fjord forming the western lobe, and one of the four main basins,Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

. The drainage from the west side flows down the

Quinault River Quinault may refer to: * Quinault people, an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast ** Quinault Indian Nation, a federally recognized tribe **Quinault language, their language People * Quinault family of actors, including * Jean-Bapt ...

and into the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, while some of the water on the mountain's northwest side flows into the Hayes River which finds its way north, to the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre ...

. Mount Anderson was named by army Lieutenant Joseph O'Neil for his commanding officer,

Thomas M. Anderson Thomas McArthur Anderson (January 21, 1836 – May 8, 1917) was a career officer in the United States Army who served as a general in the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War. Biography Early life and Civil War Anderson was ...

. It was first climbed in 1920 by Fairman B. Lee and a party of 13.

Climate

Mount Anderson is located in the

marine west coast An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

climate zone of western North America. Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For in ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

, and travel northeast toward the

. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Olympic Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall (

Orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

). As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer.

Geology

The Olympic Mountains are composed of obducted clastic wedge material and oceanic crust, primarily

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing Turbidites wer ...

, and

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 oceanic crust. The mountains were sculpted during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

era by erosion and glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.

References

External links

* Mt. Anderson weather
Mountain Forecast
* * Mountains of Washington (state) Mountains of Jefferson County, Washington Olympic Mountains Landforms of Olympic National Park {{JeffersonCountyWA-geo-stub

Climate

Geology

See also

References

External links