Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington

Mount Hood, Oregon

Hood85_mount_hood_from_timberline_ca1985.jpg Mount Hood, Oregon, as seen from timberline. USGS Photo taken ca.1985 by Lyn Topinka. [medium size] ... [large size] ... [TIF Image, 24 M]

• Mount Hood Volcano
  -- Geographic Setting, Geologic and Eruptive History
  Snow-clad Mount Hood dominates the Cascade skyline from the Portland metropolitan area to the wheat fields of Wasco and Sherman Counties. The mountain contributes valuable water, scenic, and recreational resources that help sustain the agricultural and tourist segments of the economies of surrounding cities and counties. Mount Hood is also one of the major volcanoes of the Cascade Range, having erupted repeatedly for hundreds of thousands of years, most recently during two episodes in the past 1,500 years. The last episode ended shortly before the arrival of Lewis and Clark in 1805. -- Excerpt from: Scott, et.al., 1997

• Geologic History of Mount Hood Volcano, Oregon -- A Field-Trip Guidebook
  Native American legends abound with descriptions of the brothers Wy'east (Hood) and Pahto (Adams) battling for the fair La-wa-la-clough (st. Helens). Behaviors attributed to Wy'east (as paraphrased from Harris' (1988) summary of Native American lore) include hurtling of hot rocks from gaping holes, sending forth streams of liquid fire, loss of formerly high summits, and choking of valleys with rocks. These are fair descriptions of Mount Hood's reconstructed activity over the past two millennia. -- Scott, et.al., 1997

• Crater Rock Lava Dome
  Nestled in the crater of Oregon's majestic Mount Hood volcano is Crater Rock, a prominent feature known to thousands of skiers, climbers, and tourists who journey each year to the famous Timberline Lodge located high on the volcano's south flank. Crater Rock stands about 100 meters above the sloping crater floor and warm fumaroles along its base emit sulfur gases and a faint steam plume that is sometimes visible from the lodge. What most visitors do not know, however, is that Crater Rock is a volcanic lava dome only 200 years old. -- Excerpt from: Brantley and Scott, 1993

• Glaciers
  Twelve glaciers and named snowfields cover approximately 80 percent of the cone above the 2,100-meter level (6,800 feet) and contain about 350 million cubic meters (450 million cubic yards) of ice. Most of the glaciers have remained roughly constant in size over the last few decades, after retreating from a neo-glacial maximum early in the 18th century. -- Excerpt from: Swanson, et.al., 1989

• Panorama Point County Park
  Panorama Point overlook of Cascade Range, Mount Hood, and Hood River Valley. -- Excerpt from: Scott, et.al., 1997

• Portland, Oregon
  For the general public, Mount Hood is perhaps the most accessible and preeminent of Oregon's volcanoes, located only 75 kilometers (45 miles) east-southeast of Portland, Oregon. -- Excerpt from: David R. Sherrod, 1990

• River Drainages
  Much of the south slope of Mount Hood is a broad, relatively smooth fan that slopes down to the area around Government Camp and is bounded on the east by the White and Salmon River valleys. The White River flows southward and southeastward through a virtually uninhabited region for many tens of kilometers and joins the Deschutes River, a tributary of the Columbia. The Salmon River takes a long circuitous course southwesterly, then northwesterly, through uninhabited country and finally joins the Sandy River. The west side of the fan is bounded by the Zigzag River, which, with its tributaries, drains the southwest slope of Mount Hood. The Zigzag River flows westward to join the Sandy River near the community of Zigzag. The Sandy heads on the west side of the volcano and flows westerly and northwesterly to its confluence with the Columbia River at Troutdale. The north and east sides of the volcano are drained by tributaries of the Hood River, which joins the Columbia at the city of Hood River. The largest concentration of population near Mount Hood is situated along the floors of the Zigzag and Sandy river valleys. These valley floors will be endangered by future eruptions that produce floods and mudflows on the west and south slopes of Mount Hood. -- Excerpt from: Crandell, 1980

• Thermal Areas and Activity
  Present thermal activity at Mount Hood is in fumarole fields near Crater Rock, at the apex of a semi-circular zone of fumaroles and hydrothermally-altered, heated ground. -- Excerpt from: Swanson, et.al., 1989

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Major West Coast Volcanoes - Washington, Oregon, and California

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Mount Hood and Vicinity, Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington

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Mount Hood and Vicinity

• Mount Hood National Forest -- U.S. Forest Service websites, scroll to desired Forest
• MORE Useful Sites -- CVO Menu, includes Links to Volcano Info, Seismicity, Hydrology, etc.

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