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Volcano Road

The road up to the base of Lassen Peak (10,457 ft – 3,187 m), in Northern California's Lassen Volcanic National Park. Although this is the snowiest part of California – with an average snowfall of over 660 inches (1,676 cm) at the elevation in this photo – you can clearly see the effects of the drought even here, in June of last year. There should be a lot more snow left at this point in late spring.

 

"Lassen Peak, also known as Mount Lassen, is the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range. Located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, Lassen rises 2,000 ft (600 m) above the surrounding terrain and has a volume of 0.5 cu mi (2 km3), making it one of the largest lava domes on Earth. It was created on the destroyed northeastern flank of now gone Mount Tehama, a stratovolcano that was at least 1,000 ft (300 m) higher than Lassen Peak. It is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc which stretches from southwestern British Columbia to northern California. On May 22, 1915, a powerful explosive eruption at Lassen Peak devastated nearby areas, and spread volcanic ash as far as 200 mi (300 km) to the east. This explosion was the most powerful in a series of eruptions from 1914 through 1917. Lassen Peak and Mount St. Helens are the only two volcanoes in the contiguous United States to erupt during the 20th century. Lassen Volcanic National Park was created in Shasta County, Calif., to preserve the devastated areas as they were, for future observation and study, and to preserve the nearby volcanic features.Unlike most lava domes, Lassen Peak is topped by craters. A set of these craters exists around the summit of Lassen Peak, although two of them have been covered up by solidified lava and sulfur deposits. Lassen Peak is the largest of a group of more than 30 volcanoes that have erupted over the past 300,000 years in the Lassen Peak volcanic area." (Wikipedia)

 

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great weekend – hopefully free from such destructive volcanic activity.

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Uploaded on April 11, 2015
Taken on June 7, 2014