File:The Cascades Range in Washington and Oregon (MODIS).jpg

English: The Cascade Range, stretching 800 miles (1,300 km) from northern California, U.S.A, to southern British Columbia, Canada, separates the moist, green coastal plain from the dry interior landscape. The peaks of the Cascades are actually a volcanic chain created by the slow movement of dense oceanic crust as it slides beneath North America.

The mountains contain towering volcanic peaks, many of which are currently considered active even though eruptions in recorded history have been rare. The most recent was the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. Because of the risk that eruptions could present to human life and property, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) monitors 10 volcanoes in the Cascades. Five of these are in Washington (Glacier Peak, Mount Adams, Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, and Mount St. Helens), while the rest are in Oregon (Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, Newberry, Three Sisters, and Crater Lake).

Oh June 4, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the Cascades Range in part of the states of Washington (north) and Oregon (south).

The boundary line between the states runs along the Columbia River, which flows from inland westward to the Pacific Ocean through a deep gorge through the mountains. Snow caps the tallest volcanic peaks, while lower elevations are green with summer vegetations. The snow-capped volcanoes in this image are, from north to south, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens (west), Mount Adams (east), Mount Hood, and Mount Jefferson. Snow also sits atop the Goat Rocks Wilderness, located between Mount Rainer and Mount Adams. The Goat Rocks are remnants of a large volcano, extinct for about two million years.