Mathews Tuya facts for kids

Mathews Tuya is a special kind of volcano called a tuya. It is located in north-central British Columbia, Canada. It stands 1,775 meters (5,823 feet) tall. This tuya is one of six similar volcanoes found near Tuya Lake.

What is a Tuya?

A tuya is a volcano that erupts under a thick ice sheet or glacier. When the lava comes out, it melts the ice. The melted water then cools the lava very quickly. This process gives tuyas their unique flat-topped shape with steep sides. They often look like a table or a flat-topped mountain.

How Mathews Tuya Formed

Mathews Tuya formed about 730,000 years ago. Scientists used a special dating method to figure out its age. During its formation, the area was covered by glaciers. The volcano erupted beneath this ice.

Most of Mathews Tuya is made of a type of volcanic ash and rock called palagonitized tephra. This includes tuff, lapilli tuff, and tuff-breccia. These are all different kinds of volcanic material that formed when hot lava mixed with water and cooled quickly.

There are also some dykes and lava flows on its sides. Dykes are like walls of hardened lava that pushed up through cracks in the rock. The very top of Mathews Tuya has flat layers of lava. These layers formed after the volcano grew tall enough to rise above the ancient lake that surrounded it.

Nearby Volcanoes

Mathews Tuya is part of a group of volcanoes in the region. Other volcanoes close by include Tuya Butte, South Tuya, and Ash Mountain. All these volcanoes are part of a larger volcanic area. This area is known as the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. It stretches across parts of British Columbia and the Yukon.