Aerial Views of Two Northwest Volcanoes

My first view of Mt. Rainier out the window on New Year's Day was quite colorful, but the high-order rainbow effect of alternating pinks and greens was due to refraction, from shooting sideways through the Bombadier Q400's window toward the front of the plane.

I waited until Rainier moved fully into view for the next shot:

Photo looking almost due east.

The high peak on the left is Liberty Cap, at 14,112 feet (4301 m); the peak on the right is Point Success, at 14,158 feet (4315 m). The high point of the entire mountain, in the center and back behind the other two, is Columbia Crest, coming in at 14,411 feet (4392 m).

In the view above, we're looking at the head of the South Fork of the Mowich River just left of center in the foreground. The small ice field above and left of the river head is Edmunds Glacier. The shadowed icy mass to the left of Edmunds is the North Mowich Glacier, which is above the North Fork of the Mowich River (mostly out of view).

A radial dike runs from between the two closer and less elevated peaks to the lower right, into what is the headwaters of the North Puyallup River. The landform formed by the radial dike is known as Puyallup Cleaver.

Photo looking a little east of northeast.

Here we're looking almost straight up the andesitic dike that forms Puyallup Cleaver. This dike fed lavas that erupted between 280 and 190 ka (Pringle, 2008). The Puyallup Glacier is to the left (north) of the dike; the Tahoma Glacier is to the right (south). The steep headwall above Puyallup Glacier is called Sunset Ampitheater. Ice in Sunset Ampitheater spills (or flows) into both the Puyallup and the North Mowich Glaciers.

I was on the wrong side of the plane to see Mt. St. Helens, but had this great view of Mt. Adams as the sun went down and the light got pink. Notice the reddish irridescent lenticular cloud off to the side.

Mt. Adams looking almost due east.

Too bad I hadn't thought about my new camera on the Alaska-SeaTac leg of the flight! For some reason, I didn't think about it, and hence only got some not-so-great phone photos.