The Skukum Group is a 55-million-year-old

volcanic group A volcanic group is a stratigraphic group consisting of volcanic strata. They can be in the form of volcanic fields, volcanic complexes and cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequ ...

in northern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and southern

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

, Canada. It consists of discrete

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

s in a linear range from the south end of Atlin Lake to

Bennett Lake Bennett Lake is a lake in the Province of British Columbia and Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada, at an elevation of 2602 ft. (642 m.) . It is just north of the border with the United States state of Alaska, near the Alaskan port of Skagw ...

, then to

Aishihik Lake Aishihik Lake is a lake in southwestern Yukon, Canada. Yukon Electric Corporation operates a 37 megawatt hydroelectric dam at the south end of the lake, where it drains southward into the Aishihik River. A US Air Force base was established near ...

. The cluster of rocks crowds the Mount Skukum

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

deposit southwest of

Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...

. One of the calderas within the group is the

Bennett Lake Volcanic Complex The Bennett Lake Volcanic Complex (BLVC) is a huge 50-million-year-old extinct caldera complex that spans across the British Columbia-Yukon border in Canada. It is located near the western end of the West Arm of Bennett Lake. The caldera complex ...

See also