although little-known to the general public, british columbia is home to a huge area of volcanoes and volcanic activity in the pacific ring of fire. several mountains that many british columbians look at every day are dormant volcanoes. most of them have erupted during the pleistocene and holocene. although none of canada's volcanoes are currently erupting, several volcanoes, volcanic fields, and volcanic centers are considered potentially active, 49 of which have erupted in the past 10,000 years and many of which have been active in the past two million years. there are hot springs at some volcanoes while 10 volcanoes in british columbia appear related to seismic activity since 1975, including: mount silverthrone, mount meager massif, wells gray-clearwater volcanic field, mount garibaldi, mount cayley massif, castle rock, the volcano, mount edziza, hoodoo mountain and crow lagoon. numerous shield volcanoes developed during the tertiary period in north-central british columbia and some were active intermittently to recent times. mount edziza and level mountain are most spectacular examples. mount edziza is a stratovolcano consisting of a basal shield of basaltic flows surmounted by a central vent and flanked by numerous satellite cones, ash beds and blocky lavas. the complex has a long history of volcanic eruption that began about 10 million years ago and ended about 1300 years ago. the volcanoes are grouped into four volcanic belts with different tectonic settings.