Mount Sanford - North Slopes

Mount Sanford 16,237' ( 4949m )- Telephoto view of the north slopes as seen from near the village of Christochina 60 miles to the north on the Glenn Highway 1 between Tok and Glenallen. This massive, dissected shield volcano is located in southeastern Alaska and has not been active in historic time therefore is classified as dormant/extinct. It has been built over time by accumulation of many hundreds of relatively fluid lava flows which account for the broad domed shape typical of shield volcanoes. Even though much of its structure has been eroded, it is still said to be composed of 250 CUBIC MILES! of lava, making this mountain one of the largest on earth in terms of sheer volume. It sits in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve and is part of the Wrangell volcanic field - 10,400 km2 of volcanic terrain that extends east into the St. Elias Mountains in Canada. The old basement rock on which the volcano erupted belongs to what geologists call the Wrangellia Terrane - a belt that stretches south through the Queen Charlotte Islands to Vancouver Island in southern B.C.