The Table (British Columbia)

This article is about Table Mountain in British Columbia. For other uses, see Table Mountain (disambiguation).

For other uses, see The Table (disambiguation).

The Table, sometimes called Table Mountain, is a 2,021-metre (6,631 ft) high flow-dominated andesite tuya located 4 kilometres (2 mi) south of Garibaldi Lake, 15 kilometres (9 mi) northeast of Cheekye and 5 kilometres (3 mi) north of Mount Garibaldi, British Columbia, Canada. It rises over 530 metres (1,740 ft) above the surface of Garibaldi Lake, which lies less than 1 kilometre (1 mi) to the north.

The Table
The Table rises above the southwest side of Garibaldi Lake
Highest point
Elevation	2,021 m (6,631 ft)^[1]
Prominence	251 m (823 ft)^[1]
Listing	Mountains of British Columbia
Coordinates	49°53′42″N 123°00′47″W / 49.89500°N 123.01306°W / 49.89500; -123.01306Coordinates: 49°53′42″N 123°00′47″W / 49.89500°N 123.01306°W / 49.89500; -123.01306^[2]
Geography
The Table British Columbia, Canada Show map of British Columbia The Table The Table (Canada) Show map of Canada
District	New Westminster Land District
Parent range	Garibaldi Ranges
Topo map	NTS 92G14 Cheakamus River^[2]
Geology
Age of rock	Holocene
Mountain type	Tuya
Volcanic arc/belt	Canadian Cascade Arc Garibaldi Volcanic Belt
Last eruption	Holocene
Climbing
First ascent	1916 Tom Fyles

The Table is almost impossible to climb because sections of the volcano have collapsed, creating steep and exceptionally rotten rock walls on all sides.

Geology

 

The Table as seen from Black Tusk Meadows

The Table is part of the Garibaldi Lake volcanic field, a volcanic field that includes a group of nine small andesitic stratovolcanoes and basaltic andesite vents formed during the early Holocene. This in turn is part of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt and of the Cascade Volcanic Arc that run from southwestern British Columbia to northern California caused by subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate and Explorer Plate under the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone.

Canadian geologist Bill Mathews proposed in 1951 that The Table formed when magma intruded into and melted a vertical tube in the overlying Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The partially molten mass of hornblende-phyric andesite cooled as a large block, with gravity flattening its upper surface. Horizontal columns occur at numerous locations along the periphery of the mass. The absence of glacial erosion of the tuya suggests that it erupted during the early Holocene, just prior to the disappearance of the ice sheet. Similar formations can be found in the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field, the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province and elsewhere in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt.

In Film

The Table is featured in Agent Cody Banks and in Stargate: The Ark of Truth in which it is the site of the village where the Ark was hidden. The title sequence of the film features The Table, with a graphics overlay of the village superimposed on it, as well as an aerial tour of the Mount Garibaldi and Tantalus Range area.

See also

 

The north face of Mount Garibaldi rises above The Table and Garibaldi Lake

• Cascade Volcanoes
• Garibaldi Volcanic Belt
• List of volcanoes in Canada
• Volcanism of Canada
• Volcanism of Western Canada

References

1. "The Table". Bivouac.com. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
2. "The Table". BC Geographical Names. Retrieved 2021-06-18.

Sources

• Mathews, W. H. (1951). "The Table, a Flat-Topped Volcano in Southern British Columbia". American Journal of Science. 249 (11): 830–841. doi:10.2475/ajs.249.11.830.
• Wood, Charles A.; Kienle, Jürgen, eds. (1990). Volcanoes of North America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43811-X.
• Harris, Stephen L. (2005). Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes (3rd ed.). Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87842-511-X.