Mount Edgecumbe, Alaska, USA
Photo courtesy of Michael A. Kyte, 2002. (fair use policy)
Mount Edgecumbe is one of Alaska's prettier and more accessible volcanoes, sitting just across the way from Sitka. This photo was taken in March 2002 on a fine spring day. It was named by Captain Cook in 1778, most likely for George, Earl of Edgecumbe. Some think it's a namesake of Mount Edgecumbe overlooking the harbor at Plymouth, England, but that's a low, broad eminence not at all reminiscent of this volcano.
The volcano is inactive today, but just barely—its last big eruption was around 10,000 years ago, at the beginning of the Holocene, with a few smaller events afterward. To the right is Crater Ridge, a complex of several volcanic vents. Volcanoes are rather scarce in southeastern Alaska, as there is little direct subduction of ocean crust going on. There is a degree of oblique subduction and transpression instead, which has raised regions like the Fairweather Range.
