Hayes Volcano

Hayes Volcano is a glacier-covered stratovolcano in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountains, northwest of Anchorage, whose ice-shrouded form long blended into the surrounding glaciated landscape and went unrecognized until 1975. Lacking a sharply defined summit, much of the volcano is buried beneath ice, with only lava domes, dome debris, pyroclastic deposits, and volcanic breccia exposed. Its greatest significance lies in a series of at least six catastrophic prehistoric eruptions between about 3,800 and 3,400 years ago that largely destroyed the volcano and spread major tephra layers across the Cook Inlet region. Although its last eruption likely occurred about 1,200 years ago, no historical eruptions or recent unrest are known.

Skwentna, Alaska · United States