Mount Sanford (Alaska)

A view of Mount Sanford ( left) and Mount Wrangell (right ), 1981

Pd5

Mount Sanford is a shield volcano in the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska. With 4949 meters it is the second highest peak of the mountain range and the third highest volcano in the United States. To the south of the volcano with a slope of 2400 m at a distance of 1.6 km one of the steepest slopes of North America.

Geology

Mount Sanford is mainly composed of andesite. It is an old volcano from the Pleistocene, with the upper parts were probably close to the summit until later Holocene. 900,000 years ago, the volcano was built on three smaller shield volcanoes. Notable events in the history of Mount Sanford include a large lava flow that flowed down the northeast slope and a smaller outbreak in a column, which also had a lava flow result. Radiometric measurements showed that the latter took place about 320,000 years ago.

History

1885 named Henry T. Allen of the volcano after the family Sanford. Some of his ancestors had this name.

Was first conquered Mount Sanford on July 21, 1938, the famous climbers Terris Moore and Bradford Washburn. Their chosen route over the Sheep Glacier ( glacier sheep ) from the north is still the normal route to the summit. Alone for the first time mounted him of the Japanese Naomi Uemura on September 19, 1968. He died just two years later to climb alone in attempting Mount McKinley became the first man.

On March 12, 1948 Douglas DC- 4 of the Northwest Airlines crashed on Mount Sanford. None of the 24 passengers and six crew members survived the crash. Snow covered within a short time the wreck. Only in the year 1999 it was found.