Volcano Information
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Medicine Lake Volcano
- Status: Medicine Lake is monitored by the Long Valley and Cascades Volcano Observatory. It is at a background level of activity.
Volcanic History Overview: Medicine Lake is a large Pleistocene-to-Holocene, basaltic-to-rhyolitic shield volcano east of the main axis of the Cascade Range. Medicine Lake volcanism, similar in style to that of Newberry volcano in Oregon, began less than one million years ago. A roughly 7 x 12 km caldera truncating the summit contains a lake that gives the volcano its name. A series of young eruptions lasting a few hundred years began about 10,500 years before present (BP) and produced 5 cu km of basaltic lava. Eruptive activity resumed 6000 years later, producing a chemically varied group of basaltic lava flows from flank vents and silicic obsidian flows from vents within the caldera and on the upper flanks. The last eruption produced the massive Glass Mountain obsidian flow on the east flank about 900 years BP. Lava Beds National Monument on the northern flank of Medicine Lake shield volcano contains hundreds of lava-tube caves displaying a variety of spectacular lava-flow features, most of which are found in the voluminous Mammoth Crater lava flow, which extends in several lobes up to 24 km from the vent.
Location: Western US, CA
Latitude: 41.611
Longitude: -121.554
Elevation: 2412 m
Recent Eruption: Glass Mountain obsidian flow about 900 years ago.- Hazard Assessments: Volcano Hazards Assessment for Medicine Lake Volcano, Northern California, Donnelly-Nolan, J.M, Nathenson, M., Champion, D. E., Ramsey, D. W., Lowenstern, J. B., Ewert, J. W., 2007, USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5174-A, 25 p.
- Link to monitoring data:
Volcanic Alert Level: NORMAL Aviation Color Code: GREEN
