Mount Multnomah is an invalidated hypothetical ancient

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure 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 oft ...

postulated in a 1925 publication by geologist Edwin T. Hodge. It was proposed to exist in central

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

at the present day location of the Three Sisters region. It was estimated to have been around tall, and was believed destroyed in a fashion similar to

Mount Mazama Mount Mazama ( Klamath: ''Tum-sum-ne'') is a complex volcano in the western U.S. state of Oregon, in a segment of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and Cascade Range. The volcano is in Klamath County, in the southern Cascades, north of the Oregon– ...

's eruption resulting in what is now

Crater Lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ) is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the Western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is a tourist attraction for its deep blue color and water clarity. T ...

in southern Oregon. In 1924, Hodge performed fieldwork around the area and concluded that the three adjacent volcanoes and their foothills were once part of a single giant volcano. His conclusion was bolstered by

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

from the local Warm Springs tribe, which recounted the massive eruption and collapse of the ancient peak: The date of eruption that Hodge calculated using the potassium-argon method was 25 million to 27 million years ago. This predates the earliest estimates of human presence in North America (see

Settlement of the Americas It is believed that the peopling of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers (Paleo-Indians) entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and w ...

) and even the earliest known humans (see Archaic Homo sapiens) by millions of years. Years later, Howel Williams, then dean of Cascade volcanologists, concluded that each of the Three Sisters and their surrounding mountains were unique and did not represent remains of a single collapsed structure. quoting Stephen L. Harris

References

* * Cascade Range Natural history of Oregon Volcanoes of Oregon Hypothetical volcanoes Cascade Volcanoes {{Oregon-geo-stub

See also

References