Mount Sanford

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Mount Sanford
Mount Sanford (left) in 1981
Elevation	16,237 feet (4,949 meters)
Location	Alaska, USA
Range	Wrangell Mountains
Coordinates	62°13′0″N, 144°8′0″W
Topo map	USGS
Type	Shield volcano
Age of rock	Holocene
Last eruption	320,000 bp
First ascent	1938 by Terris Moore and Bradford Washburn
Easiest route	Sheep Glacier Route

Mount Sanford is a shield volcano which lies in eastern Alaska near the Copper River and is one of the tallest volcanoes in North America. It is mainly composed of andesite, and is an ancient peak, being mostly of Pleistocene age, although some of the upper parts of the mountain may be of Holocene age. The mountain was named in 1885 by Lt. Henry T. Allen of the U.S. Army after the Sanford family (Allen was a descendant of Reuben Sanford).

The south face of the volcano, at the head of the Sanford Glacier, rises 8,000 ft in one mile (2,400 m in 1,600 m) resulting in one of the steepest gradients in North America.

The mountain first began developing 900,000 years ago, when it began growing on top of three smaller shield volcanoes that had coalesced. Two notable events in the mountain's history include a large lava flow which traveled some 18 km to the north east of the peak, and a flow erupted from a rift zone on the flank of the volcano some 320,000 years ago, which was basaltic in nature, marking the most recent dated activity of the volcano. The flow was dated using radiometric methods.

[edit] Recent history

On March 12, 1948, Northwest Airlines Flight 4422 crashed into Mount Sanford. All 24 passengers and 6 crew members were killed. The wreckage was quickly covered by snow and was not found again until 1999.

[edit] Sources

Siebert, L. and T. Simkin (2002-). Volcanoes of the World: an Illustrated Catalog of Holocene Volcanoes and their Eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3. URL: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/
Alaska Volcano Observatory