Hannegan caldera is a 3.72 million year old volcanic collapse structure in the North Cascades of the U.S. state of Washington. The caldera collapsed during two separate volcanic eruptions that produced as much as 140 km3 of rhyolite ash.
The caldera is filled with 55-60 km3 of tuff consisting of ignimbrite, wall-rock breccia, and post-caldera sedimentary rocks. Rocks filling the caldera are lumped into a stratigraphic unit called the Hannegan volcanics. This geologic unit is subdivided into the ignimbrite of Hannegan Peak, which is overlain by the slightly younger ignimbrite of Ruth Mountain. Hannegan caldera is centered 8.9 km northeast of Mount Shuksan. Prominent geographic points within the caldera include Hannegan Peak, Hannegan Pass, Ruth Mountain, Icy Peak, the western portion of Copper Ridge and the uppermost reaches of the Chilliwack River. The caldera’s western margin is in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest but most of the structure is in North Cascades National Park. The caldera is traversed by portions of the Hannegan Pass, Hannegan Peak, Chillwack River, Copper Ridge, and Boundary trails, but most of it is in untracked and rugged mountainous terrain. It is among the best exposed and youngest trap door calderas in the world, and is believed to be the only described double trapdoor caldera on Earth.
Geologic history
Pre-caldera volcanism and topography
The entire region has been deeply eroded by repeated continental and alpine glaciations. No volcanic structures or rocks predating caldera collapse survived multiple glaciations and collapse of the caldera. However, the presence of volcanic rock fragments within the intracaldera tuff are evidence for pre-caldera volcanism, as are dikes outside the caldera margin that have geochemical compositions distinct from rocks related to caldera collapse and later volcanism within the caldera.
First caldera collapse
Around 4 million years ago large volumes rhyolitic magma rose high into the crust. This intrusion most likely caused the surface to dome upwards. Fractures caused by this deformation may have provided conduits for some magma to reach the surface and erupt into relatively small volcanic structures such as felsic and intermediate lava flows and domes, cinder cones, and perhaps small stratovolcanoes. Over 10s or 100s of thousands of years, this upward deformation eventually resulted in a semicircular fracture, or ring fault to form in the brittle crust. This fault encircled the northern margin of the uplifted area and reaching down to the magma chamber, causing sudden release of confining pressure on the magma. Consequently the magma erupted huge volumes of magma as towering columns of volcanic ash and pumice, as well as pyroclastic flows. As the magma emptied, the surface collapsed in a trapdoor fashion down to the north, with the hinge on the south. Though no longer preserved due to millions of years of intense erosion, searing pyroclastic flows must have swept for 10s of kilometers down river valleys beyond the margins of the caldera, incinerating everything in their path. As the surface subsidized a kilometer or more during eruption, volcanic ash filled the resulting horseshoe-shaped caldera. Rock outside the ring fault slid inward as large landslides and left lenses of wall rock breccias and megabreccia interbedded in the tuff filling the collapsing caldera. This tuff, erupted in a single eruption, was lithified and is preserved as the ignimbrite of Hannegan Peak; it is at least 900 meters thick with no base is exposed. It is confined within the northern half of the caldera’s structural margin. A relatively precise 40Ar/30Ar radiometric age dates this unit to 3.722 +/- 0.020 million years ago. This northern portion of the Hannegan caldera is confined to the area between Ruth Mountain and Hannegan Peak, and includes the upper most portion of the Chilliwack River valley.
Hiatus and sedimentation
Collapse probably took place over a few days. At some time, a lake formed in the depression, and fine grained sediment was deposited on its floor, preserved on the northern flank of Ruth Mountain today as shale and sandstone. These rocks contain fossil leaves, and remain undated.