Mount Elden

Mount Elden or Elden Mountain (Hopi: Hovi'itstuyqa) is an extinct lava dome located in central Coconino County northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. The mountain is named after John Elden, one of the region's earliest Anglo settlers, who established a homestead on its lower slopes and grazed sheep on the open grasslands below during the late 19th century. Its exposed, rocky slopes are a prominent feature visible from almost any point in Flagstaff, rising steeply by nearly 2,400 feet (730 m) to reach an elevation of 9,301 feet (2,835 m). In 1977, the Radio Fire, a human-caused wildfire, destroyed much of the vegetation on the southern and southeastern slopes, burning 4,600 acres (1,900 hectares). Despite its rugged appearance, steep relief, and nearly of surface area, Mount Elden is easily accessible via an extensive system of road and non-motorized trail system that is part of the Coconino National Forest. Mount Elden is one of six hundred volcanoes that dot the San Francisco volcanic field in Northern Arizona. It is currently dormant with the likelihood of eruption in the near future being believed to be extremely remote.

Mount Elden or Elden Mountain (Hopi: Hovi'itstuyqa) is an extinct lava dome located in central Coconino County northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. The mountain is named after John Elden, one of the region's earliest Anglo settlers, who established a homestead on its lower slopes and grazed sheep on the open grasslands below during the late 19th century. Its exposed, rocky slopes are a prominent feature visible from almost any point in Flagstaff, rising steeply by nearly 2,400 feet (730 m) to reach an elevation of 9,301 feet (2,835 m). In 1977, the Radio Fire, a human-caused wildfire, destroyed much of the vegetation on the southern and southeastern slopes, burning 4,600 acres (1,900 hectares). Despite its rugged appearance, steep relief, and nearly of surface area, Mount Elden is easily accessible via an extensive system of road and non-motorized trail system that is part of the Coconino National Forest. Mount Elden is one of six hundred volcanoes that dot the San Francisco volcanic field in Northern Arizona. It is currently dormant with the likelihood of eruption in the near future being believed to be extremely remote. ==Geology== Mount Elden is one of five large peripheral silicic volcanic features within the greater San Francisco Peaks volcanic system (part of the San Francisco volcanic field) which include the nearby Dry Lake Hills, the Hochderffer and White Horse Hills to the northwest, and O'Leary Peak to the northeast. Because these features developed within close proximity of the San Francisco Mountain strato-volcano there is a strong likelihood that each is a geologic subsidiary of the larger mountain. Geologically, Mount Elden is a lava dome composed almost entirely of dacitic lava flows which emerged from several vents. These features emerged as intrusive emplacements within sedimentary blocks or as viscous extrusive flows in which the younger flows partially covered the older, lower flows. Geologic evidence suggests that the eruption of the mountain, which occurred at linear vents along regional faults, was a non-explosive event that took place during several flow sequences. Likewise, because of the high viscosity of the dacite, it is likely that the mountain formed in the short period of a few months' time. The mountain's overlapping flows commonly take lobe-like shapes which display a variety of flow characteristics and features including concentric benches, spires, ramping shear fractures, longitudinal tension fractures, and conjugate shear fractures. Positioned within the central part of Mount Elden, on the mountain's eastern and northwestern flanks, are two sedimentary blocks. Both of these blocks display characteristics of uplift that most likely occurred as dacitic magma intruded into the sedimentary strata at a shallow depth and uplifted the layers, causing them to dip away from the mountain. These blocks of sedimentary material are unique to the mountain, which otherwise is uniformly composed of silicic dacite. ==See also== Elden Pueblo San Francisco volcanic field ==References== ==External links== USGS fact sheet about the San Francisco volcanic field Mount Elden at SummitPost.org.

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