Mount Ararat

Mount Ararat
Satellite picture of Mount Ararat
Elevation:	16,945 ft (5,165 m)
Latitude:	39° 42′ 0″ N
Longitude:	44° 17′ 0″ E
Location:	Turkey
Range:	Caucasus Mountains
Type:	Stratovolcano
Last activity:	July 1840

Mount Ararat ("Ağrı" in Turkish, "Արարատ" in Armenian, "آرارات" in Farsi, "אררט" in Hebrew), the tallest peak in modern Turkey, is a snow-capped dormant volcanic cone, located in the far northeast of Turkey, 16 km west of Iran and 32 km south of Armenia. A widespread traditional misconception has it that the Book of Genesis identifies this mountain as the resting place of Noah's Ark after the "great flood" described there.

A smaller (3896 m) cone, Little Mount Ararat, rises just southeast of the main peak. The lava plateau stretches out between the two pinnacles. Technically, Ararat is a stratovolcano, formed of lava flows and pyroclastic ejecta.

Vessel-shaped features interpreted in aerial photographs of Ararat caused a stir in the late 1950s (see pseudoarchaeology), though expeditions found the features to be landslides and lava flows.

External links

• NASA Earth Observatory page
• Space shuttle image and basic details.
• Global Volcanism Program, Mount Ararat page.