Like other Iskut-Unuk River Cones, The Volcano has its origins in continental rifting—a long rupture in the Earth's crust where the lithosphere is being pulled apart. This incipient rifting has formed as a result of the Pacific Plate sliding northward along the Queen Charlotte Fault, on its way to the Aleutian Trench. As the continental crust stretches, the near surface rocks fracture along steeply dipping cracks parallel to the rift known as faults. Basaltic magma rises along these fractures to create effusive eruptions. The rift zone has existed for at least 14.9 million years, and has created the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. Several dormant volcanoes in the province are potentially active, with The Volcano being one of the three having erupted in the last few hundred years. Tseax Cone, which last erupted in the 18th century, is the southernmost volcano in the province, while Prindle Volcano in easternmost-central Alaska, which erupted more than 10,000 years ago, is generally considered the northernmost.