Watts Point, SW British Columbia

                                                                                       Photograph by Anna Bye

The Watts Point volcanic center is the southernmost volcanic center in the Garibaldi segment of the Cascades Volcanic Arc. The center is located along the northeast shore (point of land in the center of the photograph shown above) of Howe Sound, 40 km north of Vancouver, British Columbia. The Watts Point volcanic center comprises a continuous mass of sparsely porphyritic, highly jointed dacitic lava overlying the Mid-Cretaceous Coast Plutonic complex and overlain locally by a 20 cm layer of clay and 2 m of glacial till. Outcrops of the volcanic center have been mined for railroad ballast.

                                                                                       Photograph by Anna Bye

Columnal jointing is clearly visible in the dacite outcrop pictured here.  These columns may have formed when the lava was erupted under ice.

-Anna Bye and Ben Edwards, Grand Valley State University, MI

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at the Watts Point volcanic centre, southwestern British Columbia: a subglacial, dacite lava dome? in Current Research,
Part A; Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) Paper 2000-A20.

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