Ring of Fire
Canada

British Columbia and Yukon are home to a region of volcanoes and volcanic activity in the Pacific Ring of Fire. More than 20 volcanoes have erupted in the western Canada during the Holocene Epoch but only 6 are directly related to subduction: Bridge River Cones, Mount Cayley, Mount Garibaldi, Garibaldi Lake, Silverthrone Caldera, and Mount Meager massif. Several mountains in populated areas of British Columbia are dormant volcanoes. Most of these were active during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. Although none of Canada's volcanoes are currently erupting, several volcanoes, volcanic fields, and volcanic centers are considered potentially active. There are hot springs at some volcanoes. Since 1975, seismic activity appears to have been associated with some volcanoes in British Columbia including the six subduction-related volcanoes as well as intraplate volcanoes such as Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field. The volcanoes are grouped into five volcanic belts with different tectonic settings.

The Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province is an area of numerous volcanoes, which are caused by continental rifting not subduction; therefore geologists often regard it as a gap in the Pacific Ring of Fire between the Cascade Volcanic Arc further south and Alaska's Aleutian Arc further north.

The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt in southwestern British Columbia is the northern extension of the Cascade Volcanic Arc in the United States (which includes Mount Baker and Mount St. Helens) and contains the most explosive young volcanoes in Canada. It formed as a result of subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate (a remnant of the much larger Farallon Plate) under the North American Plate along the Cascadia subduction zone. The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt includes the Bridge River Cones, Mount Cayley, Mount Fee, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Price, Mount Meager massif, the Squamish Volcanic Field, and more smaller volcanoes. The eruption styles in the belt range from effusive to explosive, with compositions from basalt to rhyolite. Morphologically, centers include calderas, cinder cones, stratovolcanoes and small isolated lava masses. Due to repeated continental and alpine glaciations, many of the volcanic deposits in the belt reflect complex interactions between magma composition, topography, and changing ice configurations. The most recent major catastrophic eruption in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt was an explosive eruption of the Mount Meager massif about 2,350 years ago. It was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, sending an ash column about 20 km into the stratosphere.

The Chilcotin Group is a north–south range of volcanoes in southern British Columbia running parallel to the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt. The majority of the eruptions in this belt happened either 6–10 million years ago (Miocene) or 2–3 million years ago (Pliocene), although with some slightly more recent eruptions (in the Pleistocene). It is thought to have formed as a result of back-arc extension behind the Cascadia subduction zone. Volcanoes in this belt include Mount Noel, the Clisbako Caldera Complex, Lightning Peak, Black Dome Mountain, and many lava flows.

Eruptions of basaltic to rhyolitic volcanoes and hypabyssal rocks of the Alert Bay Volcanic Belt in northern Vancouver Island are probably linked with the subducted margin flanked by the Explorer and Juan de Fuca Plates at the Cascadia subduction zone. It appears to have been active during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. However, no Holocene eruptions are known, and volcanic activity in the belt has likely ceased.

The active Queen Charlotte Fault on the west coast of the Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, has generated three large earthquakes during the 20th century: a magnitude 7 event in 1929; a magnitude 8.1 in 1949 (Canada's largest recorded earthquake); and a magnitude 7.4 in 1970.

The Public Safety Geo-science Program at the Natural Resources Canada undertakes research to support risk reduction from the effects of space weather, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides.
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