Dragon Cone

Dragon Cone
The lower snowpatch in center marks the crater.
Elevation	1,830 m (6,004 ft)
Location
Location	British Columbia, Canada
Range	Cariboo Mountains
Coordinates	52°15′N 120°03′W / 52.25°N 120.05°W / 52.25; -120.05
Geology
Type	Cinder cone
Age of rock	Holocene
Volcanic arc/belt	Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field
Last eruption	7560 BP

Dragon Cone is a monogenetic cinder cone located in Wells Gray Provincial Park in east-central British Columbia. It is the source of a 15 km (9 mi) long lava flow, called Dragon's Tongue. This lava covered the floor of narrow Falls Creek Valley and terminated at the Clearwater River, damming it to a height of 3 m (10 ft) and raising the level of existing Clearwater Lake upstream. Geologists have recovered some peat buried by the lava and radiocarbon dating produced an age of 7560 years plus or minus 100 years.^[1] Flows from nearby Flourmill Cone, Kostal Cone and Spanish Lake Cones rest on glaciated bedrock without an intervening paleosol, suggesting an early Holocene age.

Visits to Dragon Cone are very rare due to difficult access. The nearest trail is the overgrown Kostal Lake Trail, over 5 km (3.1 mi) to the south. Falls Creek is impassable for boats. The cone is best viewed from the air, but float plane landings on nearby Ray Lake are not permitted.^[2]

See also

• List of volcanoes in Canada
• Volcanism of Canada
• Volcanism of Western Canada

References

1. ^ Goward, Trevor and Hickson, Cathie (1995). Nature Wells Gray, 2nd edition. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, AB. ISBN 1-55105-065-x.
2. ^ Neave, Roland (2004). Exploring Wells Gray Park, 5th edition. Wells Gray Tours, Kamloops, BC. ISBN 0-9681932-1-8.

• "Dragon Cone". Catalogue of Canadian volcanoes. http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/volcanoes/cat/volcano_e.php?id=wcb_dcn_007.