At 14,410 feet, Mount Rainier is the highest peak in the Cascade Range. With Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Baker, it is part of a chain of volcanoes that extends from northern California to southern British Columbia. The Cascade volcanoes arise from the collision of enormous sheets of the planet's surface. These tectonic plates float atop the Earth's mantle. In the Pacific Northwest, the Juan de Fuca Plate plunges beneath the North American Plate in a process called subduction. High temperatures and pressures in the subduction zone melt solid rock, and some of the newly formed magma rises to the surface and erupts, forming volcanoes such as Mount Rainier. On a clear day, other Cascade volcanoes are visible from here, including Mount Adams to the south and Glacier Peak and Mount Baker to the north.