[3] Local relief exceeds 2,000 m (6,600 ft) with the 18 km (11 mi) long valley-filling Franklin Glacier originating from an icefield below the west face of Mount Waddington.

An absence of pumice, glassy blocks or bombs in the breccia suggests that it may be of epiclastic origin, possibly formed during collapse and infilling of a caldera.

[7][8] Heavy erosion of the volcanic rocks has exposed a series of biotite-quartz-porphyry, biotite quartz-feldspar-porphyry and quartz monzonite subvolcanic plutons and dike swarms.

They intrude through fractured and hydrothermally altered Mesozoic to early Tertiary granitic and metamorphic rocks of the Coast Plutonic Complex.

[11] A series of smaller intrusions were emplaced during the second magmatic stage 2.2 to 3.9 million years ago, at least some of which appear to have been feeders for the overlying volcanic pile.

The existence of these hot springs has made the Franklin Glacier Complex a target for geothermal exploration but little work has been conducted due to its remote location.

The earliest recorded work was done by Kennco Exploration Limited with the staking of claims in a zone of copper-molybdenum mineralization associated with the quartz monzonite stock.

In 1987–1988, United Pacific Gold Limited performed trenching, mapping, geophysics, geochemical sampling and 785 m (2,575 ft) of diamond drilling in nine boreholes.