Editing Mount Shasta (section)

== Description ==
The origin of the name "[[Shasta people#Origin of name|Shasta]]" is vague, either derived from a [[Shasta people|people]] of a name like it or otherwise garbled by early Westerners.  Mount Shasta is connected to its satellite cone of [[Shastina]], and together they dominate the landscape. Shasta rises abruptly to tower nearly {{convert|10000|ft|m|-3}} above its surroundings.<ref name="selters_zanger" /> On a clear winter day, the mountain can be seen from the floor of the [[Central Valley (California)|Central Valley]] {{convert|140|mi|km}} to the south.<ref>In 1878 the [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey]] triangulated between heliotropes atop Mount Shasta and Mount St. Helena, {{convert|192|mi|km}} south.</ref> The mountain has attracted the attention of poets,<ref name="Miller">{{cite book | last = Miller | first = Joaquin |author2=Malcolm Margolin |author3=Alan Rosenus | title = Life amongst the Modocs: unwritten history | publisher = Urion Press (distributed by Heyday Books) | year=1996 | orig-year = 1873 | location = Berkeley | isbn = 978-0-930588-79-3 }}</ref> authors,<ref name=muir>{{cite book|author-link=John Muir|last=Muir|first=John|year=1923|chapter=Letters, 1874–1888, of a personal nature, about Mount Shasta|editor-last=Bade|editor-first=William Frederic|title=The Life and Letters of John Muir|location=New York|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Co.|volume=II|pages=29–41, 49–50, 82–85, 219}}</ref> and presidents.<ref name=roosevelt>{{cite book|author-link=Theodore Roosevelt|last=Roosevelt|first=Theodore|chapter=Letter to Harrie Cassie Best, dated Nov. 12, 1908, White House|editor-link=George Wharton James|editor-last=James|editor-first=George Wharton|year=1930|title=Harry Cassie Best: Painter of the Yosemite Valley, California Oaks, and California Mountains|page=18}}</ref>

The mountain consists of four overlapping dormant volcanic cones that have built a complex shape, including the main summit and the prominent and visibly conical [[satellite cone]] of {{convert|12330|ft|m|adj=on|abbr=on}} Shastina. If Shastina were a separate mountain, it would rank as the fourth-highest peak of the Cascade Range (after [[Mount Rainier]], Rainier's [[Liberty Cap (Washington)|Liberty Cap]], and Mount Shasta itself).<ref name="selters_zanger" />

Mount Shasta's surface is relatively free of deep glacial [[erosion]] except, paradoxically, for its south side where Sargents Ridge<ref>{{cite web | url=https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/265849 | title=Sargents Ridge | website=[[Geographic Names Information System]] | publisher=[[United States Geological Survey]] | access-date=2008-04-19 | archive-date=2023-11-04 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231104224413/https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/265849 | url-status=live }}</ref> runs parallel to the [[U-shaped valley|U-shaped]] Avalanche Gulch. This is the largest glacial valley on the volcano, although it does not now have a glacier in it. There are seven named [[glacier]]s on Mount Shasta, with the four largest ([[Whitney Glacier|Whitney]], [[Bolam Glacier|Bolam]], [[Hotlum Glacier|Hotlum]], and [[Wintun Glacier|Wintun]]) radiating down from high on the main summit cone to below {{convert|10000|ft|m|-2|abbr=on}} primarily on the north and east sides.<ref name="selters_zanger">{{cite book | last = Selters | first = Andy |author2=Michael Zanger | title = The Mount Shasta Book | edition = 3rd | publisher = [[Wilderness Press]] | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-89997-404-0 }}</ref> The Whitney Glacier is the longest, and the Hotlum is the most voluminous glacier in the state of California. Three of the smaller named glaciers occupy [[Cirque (landform)|cirques]] near and above {{convert|11000|ft|m|-2|abbr=on}} on the south and southeast sides, including the [[Watkins Glacier|Watkins]], [[Konwakiton Glacier|Konwakiton]], and [[Mud Creek Glacier|Mud Creek]] glaciers.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}