Youngest volcanic rocks

Unit symbol: Qv
Age range Quaternary and latest Tertiary? (1.806 to 0 Ma)
Lithology: Igneous - Volcanic
Group name: Young volcanic and shallow intrusive rocks
Volcanic rocks ranging in composition from rhyolite to basalt. Along the Aleutian magmatic arc and the Wrangell Mountains, the rocks are predominantly andesite and lesser dacite and basalt of calc-alkaline and tholeiitic affinity in lava flows, volcanic breccia, lahar deposits, and debris-flow deposits. Lava flows and clasts in other volcanic deposits of unit are porphyritic, typically glassy, gray to black, and commonly vesicular. Unit also includes basaltic, basaltic andesite, and dacite parasitic cinder and spatter cones. Unit typically forms volcanic edifices; it also forms isolated outcrops that cap ridges, providing a good example of topography reversal, which results from erosion of surrounding country rocks, leaving exposed more erosion-resistant flows that formerly had occupied valleys. Individual flows are locally as thick as 30 m and are laterally continuous over large areas. Includes Edgecumbe Volcanics (basalt, andesite, and dacite) on Kruzof Island (Loney and others, 1975; Riehle and others, 1989) and unnamed basaltic to rhyolitic rocks on islands west of Prince Wales Island (Eberlein and others, 1983), and on Zarembo, Kuiu, and Kupreanof Islands (Brew and others, 1984). Rocks of Holocene age were recognized east of Wrangell Island (Elliott and others, 1981) and on Kruzof Island (Loney and others, 1975), and basaltic rocks of Holocene and (or) Pleistocene age are found on southern Kupreanof Island (Brew and others, 1985). On Revillagigedo Island and mainland to the east in the Ketchikan quadrangle (Berg and others, 1978, 1988) and at many other localities in southeast Alaska (Karl and others, 2012), this extrusive unit consists of alkaline-olivine basalt that forms volcanic cones, columnar jointed lava flows, and rubble flows that contain pumice and scoria; it also includes lenses of ash and lapilli a few centimeters to a few meters thick—too small to show on the map. Includes postglacial flows and pyroclastic deposits that overlie glacial deposits and landforms

Source map information

Source map Wilson, F.H., Detterman, R.L., Miller, J.W., and Case, J.E., 1995, Geologic map of the Port Moller, Stepovak Bay, and Simeonof Island quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigation Map I-2272, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.
Symbol Qpd
Unit name Pyroclastic and debris-flow deposits
Description Dacite and rhyolite ash-flow tuff and debris-flow, block-and-ash-flow, explosion debris, and air-fall deposits. Mapped near Pavlof Volcano, Mount Dana, Kupreanof Volcano and other nearby unnamed volcanoes (Wilson, 1989), Mount Veniaminof (Detterman and others, 1981b), Aniakchak Crater (Miller and Smith, 1977), Ugashik Caldera (Detterman, Wilson, and others, 1987), and Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (Riehle and others, 1987 and 1993). Pyroclastic deposits "typically are composed of pumice and scoria bombs *** and subordinate lithic fragments in a matrix of fine to coarse ash, pumice, and lithic material" (Miller and Smith, 1977, p. 174). Miller and Smith (1977) reported that composition ranges from basaltic andesite to rhyolite, although most are dacite. Valley of Thousand Smokes is well known for its compositionally zoned rhyolite to andesite ash flows erupted in 1912 (see, for example, Hildreth, 1983). Hildreth (1987) estimated composition of lavas from 1912 Katmai eruption to have been roughly 54 to 59 percent rhyolite, 35 to 43 percent dacite, and 3 to 5 percent andesite.
Lithology Igneous

Correlated geologic units

Label Qpd
Description Pyroclastic (Ash and debris flow) deposits
Geologic age Pleistocene to Holocene
Geologic setting Extrusive
Lithology Form Importance
Rhyolite < Felsic-volcanic < Volcanic < Igneous Pyroclastic Major
Felsic-volcanic < Volcanic < Igneous Pyroclastic Indeterminate, major
Andesite < Mafic-volcanic < Volcanic < Igneous Pyroclastic Indeterminate, major