Geology
The Itcha Range is a 2.5-million-year-old massive felsic shield volcano in the Anahim Volcanic Belt which includes other immediately nearby ranges, the Rainbow and Ilgachuz Ranges. The shield has a diameter of 10 kilometers and is now eroded by glaciers carving into the volcanic rock. The Itcha Range and its neighbours were formed when the North American Plate moved over a stationary hotspot, known as the Anahim hotspot. The hotspot is considered similar to the one feeding the Hawaiian Islands.
Most late-stage lavas capping the Itcha shield complex were erupted from cinder cones, tuff rings, and fissures in the eastern half of the complex. The Itcha shield complex contains at least 23 cinder cones, all of which were active during the Pleistocene period.
Satah Mountain occupies the high point of a long ridge of trachytic lava domes, lava flows and basaltic and trachybasaltic pyroclastic cones, extending south from the felsic Itcha Range shield complex. The youngest cone is well preserved, and could be of comparable age to the 7200-year-old Nazko Cone east of the Itcha Range. Like most volcanoes in British Columbia, it is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire which includes over 160 active volcanoes.
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