Prindle Volcano is an isolated basaltic

cinder cone A cinder cone (or scoria cone) is a steep conical hill of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic clinkers, volcanic ash, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are formed by explosive eruptions o ...

located in eastern

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, in the headwaters of the East Fork of the Fortymile River, approximately 80 kilometers northeast of

Tok, Alaska Tok is a census-designated place (CDP) in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 1,243 at the 2020 census, slightly down from 1,258 in 2010. Geography Tok lies on a large, flat alluvial plain of the Tanana V ...

. The cone is fresh-looking and has a base approximately wide. It is the northwesternmost expression of the

Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province The Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province (NCVP), formerly known as the Stikine Volcanic Belt, is a geologic province defined by the occurrence of Miocene to Holocene volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest of North America. This belt of volcanoes ex ...

. The cinder cone, and an approximately long lava flow which breached the margin of the cone, erupted in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), 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 fina ...

approximately 176,000 years ago. The lava flow extends to the southeast, then turns southwest and continues in a river valley. Rocks forming the Prindle Volcano occur within, and penetrated through, the Yukon–Tanana upland which is a large region of mostly

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

metamorphosed Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causin ...

and deformed

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...

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 ...

, and intrusive rocks that are intruded by younger

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

and

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

granitic A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quart ...

rocks.

Xenolith A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock fragment (country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igne ...

s in the volcano's ejecta provide a sample of lower crust material.

References

External links

* * Prindle,_Mount Northern_Cordilleran_Volcanic_Province">Prindle,_Mount Cinder_cones_of_the_United_States.html" ;"title="Volcanoes of Alaska">Prindle, Mount Prindle,_Mount Cinder_cones_of_the_United_States">Prindle,_Mount Landforms_of_Yukon–Koyukuk_Census_Area,_Alaska.html" ;"title="Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province">Prindle, Mount Cinder cones of the United States">Prindle, Mount Landforms of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska">Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province">Prindle, Mount Cinder cones of the United States">Prindle, Mount Landforms of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska Pleistocene volcanoes Volcanoes of Unorganized Borough, Alaska Pleistocene United States {{YukonKoyukukAK-geo-stub

See also

References

External links