Mount Hood
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Mount Hood is a dormant stratovolcano in northern Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. and is located about 60 miles (100 km) east of the city of Portland. Its snow-covered peak rises on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties. It is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth-highest in the Cascade Range. It can be seen easily from both Portland and Vancouver, Washington.
The glacially eroded summit area consists of several andesitic or dacitic lava domes; Pleistocene collapses produced avalanches and lahars (rapidly moving mudflows) that traveled across the Columbia River to the north. The eroded volcano has had at least four major eruptive periods during the past 15,000 years. The last three occurred within the past 1,800 years from vents high on the SW flank and produced deposits that were distributed primarily to the south and west along the Sandy and Zigzag rivers. The last eruptive period took place around 170 to 220 years ago, when dacitic lava domes, pyroclastic flows and mudflows were produced without major explosive eruptions.
The last major eruption occurred in 1781-1782, with the most recent episode ending shortly before the arrival of Lewis and Clark in 1805. It is considered a potentially active volcano, but no major eruptive events have been catalogued since systematic record keeping began in the 1820s. Eleven glaciers cling to the mountain's rocky slopes; these may be a source of potentially dangerous lahars when the mountain next erupts.
Mount Hood is second only to Japan's Mt. Fuji in the number of climbers reaching the summit. It is part of the Mount Hood National Forest, which has 1.2 million acres (4,900 km²), four designated wilderness areas and more than 1,900 km (1,200 mi) of hiking trails.
The mountain has five ski areas, including the only ski area in the U.S. that's open 12 months of the year. Timberline Lodge is a National Historic Landmark located on the southern flank of Mt. Hood. The other areas are Mt. Hood Meadows, Ski Bowl, Cooper Spur, and Ski Bunny.
Origin of its name
The Native American name for Mount Hood is Wy'East. Legend has it that the name Wy'east comes from a chief of the Multnomah tribe, the tribe after which Multnomah County was named. The chief competed for the attention of a woman who was also loved by the chief of the Klickitat tribe. The anger that the competition generated led to all three of them being turned into volcanoes, with the Klickitat chief becoming nearby Mount Adams and the target of their affection becoming Mount St. Helens.
It was given its present name on October 29, 1792 by Lt. William Broughton, a member of Captain George Vancouver's discovery expedition. It was named after a British admiral, Samuel Hood.
See also
- High Cascades
- Mount Rainier
- Mount St. Helens
- Mount Adams
- Glacier Peak
- Mount Baker
- Mount Shasta
- Crater Lake
External links
- Mount Hood — History and Hazards of Oregon's Most Recently Active Volcano, from a USGS website
- Mount Hood National Park Campaign, the website of a two-person non-profit lobbying organization
- Mount Hood, from the member-supported "Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia"