Five Cascade Volcanoes
February 01, 2005
Provided and copyright by: Steve Kluge, Fox Lane High School
Summary author: Steve Kluge
These two eye-catching photos were taken on approach to and take-off from Portland, Oregon in late September 2003. The left-hand image is the view south along the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Mount Hood stands tall in the foreground, with Mount Jefferson next in line, and The Sisters farther south on the horizon near Bend, Oregon. The right-hand image is the view north from near the same location - though a few days later and from a higher elevation. Mount Adams dominates the foreground, and the vast bulk of Mount Rainier looms in the background.
The Cascade volcanoes result from the subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate under present-day Oregon and Washington. The neat north-south orientation of these majestic mountains reflects the alignment of the sediment-filled trench on the sea floor west of here, where the Juan de Fuca plate begins its long, eastward dipping descent beneath the Pacific Northwest and back into Earth's asthenosphere.
Related Links:
- Cascades Volcano Observatory
- Tectonics of the Pacific Northwest
- The Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array (PANGA)
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