Maitland Volcano facts for kids

Maitland Volcano is an old, worn-down shield volcano in British Columbia, Canada. It is about 83 km (52 mi) southeast of the small town of Telegraph Creek. This volcano was once very large and had many openings, or vents. A younger volcano even grew on top of it!

Today, not much is left of Maitland Volcano. We can only see old lava flows and unique rock formations. These formed when hot magma cooled inside the volcano's vents.

Maitland Volcano is part of a big group of volcanoes. This group is called the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province (NCVP). It is also part of the much larger Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is an area around the Pacific Ocean where many volcanoes and earthquakes happen. Scientists have learned that Maitland was active for less than a million years. This is a short time compared to other big volcanoes in the NCVP. Maitland Volcano produced at least four types of lava. These include alkali basalt, hawaiite, trachyte, and trachybasalt. Scientists have been studying these lavas since the 1950s.

How Maitland Volcano Formed

Maitland Volcano was one of the largest shield volcanoes in the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. Other big ones include Heart Peaks, Level Mountain, and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. Maitland Volcano was about 50 km (31 mi) long and 40 km (25 mi) wide. It covered an area of at least 1,000 km² (390 sq mi). This is similar in size to the Mount Edziza complex. Mount Edziza is about 40 km (25 mi) west of Maitland Volcano.

Like most shield volcanoes, Maitland was made of many basaltic lava flows. This lava was very runny, like thick syrup. This is why the volcano had a wide, flat shape. Maitland might have had a broad lava plateau, like other large NCVP shield volcanoes.

Why Volcanoes Form Here

Like other Northern Cordilleran volcanoes, Maitland Volcano formed because the Earth's crust was pulling apart. This is called continental rifting. It's like a long crack in the Earth where the lithosphere (the Earth's outer layer) is stretching. This stretching happened because the Pacific Plate was sliding north. It moved along the Queen Charlotte Fault towards the Aleutian Trench.

As the continental crust stretched, rocks near the surface cracked. These cracks are called faults. Hot basaltic magma rose up through these cracks. This caused lava to flow out in effusive eruptions. This rift zone has been active for at least 14.9 million years. It created the entire Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. This area is part of the Ring of Fire.

Maitland's Volcanic Past

We don't know much about Maitland's full volcanic history. This is because only small parts of the volcano remain. We do know that it formed during a time when many NCVP volcanoes were active. This period started about seven million years ago with the eruption of Edziza. During this time, volcanoes erupted much more often than they do today.

Maitland volcanism began 5.2 million years ago. Lava flows of alkali basalt and hawaiite spread over a wide, flat area. This created the broad shield volcano. Later, more volcanic activity added a complex structure of trachyte and trachybasalt. This structure used to sit on top of the central part of the basaltic shield. Volcanic activity at Maitland continued until about 4.6 million years ago. Then, the volcano became extinct.

Maitland Volcano's activity matched the stretching of the Canadian Cordillera. This stretching began around 10 million years ago. It was caused by new movements between the Pacific and North American plates. This helped thin the Earth's outer layer. It also caused hot rock from the mantle to melt. This melting created the alkaline magma that formed Maitland. The volcano was active for about 600,000 years. This is a short time for such a large shield volcano. It suggests the volcano grew quickly and steadily. Maitland's volcanic activity stopped when the way the Earth's plates moved changed about four million years ago.

Why Maitland Volcano is Mostly Gone Today

Diagram of the remains of Maitland Volcano

After Maitland Volcano became extinct, it slowly wore away. This process is called erosion. Maitland Volcano eroded away, but its neighbor, Edziza, did not. There are two main reasons for this.

First, Maitland Volcano stopped erupting. So, it could not protect itself from erosion with new layers of lava. Second, Maitland was built on soft, crumbly sedimentary rocks. These rocks are part of the Bowser Lake Group. Soft rocks erode more easily than hard igneous rocks. The Bowser Lake Group rocks include shale, sandstone, conglomerate, and siltstone. These rocks formed in marine and non-marine environments. This happened during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Today, deep valleys cut into these Jurassic shale and sandstone layers. These valleys can be as much as 600 m (2,000 ft) below where the base of Maitland Volcano used to be. Most of the rugged mountains in the Klappan Range formed after Maitland Volcano was built.

What's left of Maitland Volcano's lava flows are scattered on top of higher mountains. These flat lava caps can be up to 400 m (1,300 ft) thick. They contain as many as 20 separate lava flows. Each flow is usually 2 to 20 m (6.6 to 65.6 ft) thick. The main rock is basalt, but greenish-grey trachybasalt and pale green trachyte are found in the top layers. The highest remaining part of Maitland Volcano is 2,514 m (8,248 ft) high.

There are also 14 volcanic plugs visible. These were once under the center of Maitland Volcano. They are steep, isolated rock towers. They can reach heights of 150 m (490 ft) above the surrounding land. They are round or oval-shaped, from 100 to 250 m (330 to 820 ft) wide. These plugs are the main channels through which Maitland's lava reached the surface. Some plugs have reddish, oxidized pyroclastic blocks around them. These likely formed from small explosions not far below the surface.

Studying Maitland Volcano

Geological Research

The remains of Maitland Volcano were first mapped in 1956. This was done by the Geological Survey of Canada. They saw that the volcanic rocks on top of the Klappan Range were parts of old lava flows. They noticed these parts were at different heights. So, they thought the rocks were from individual flows, not one continuous sheet of lava. Jack Souther mapped these lava flow remnants in more detail in 1972. Later, Hu Gabrielse and Howard Tipper mapped them in 1984.

How Maitland Volcano Got Its Name

Maitland Volcano is named after Maitland Creek. This creek flows from the eroded base of the volcano into the Klappan River. Maitland Creek was named on May 6, 1975, for William John Maitland. He was from Vancouver and served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. William Maitland was killed in action on December 16, 1943, at the age of 22.

In 1990, Canadian volcanologist Jack Souther gave the informal name Maitland volcanics to the remaining lava flows and volcanic plugs. Later, in 2005, scientists Evenchick and others suggested Maitland Volcanics as a formal name for these volcanic rocks.