El Chichón is a small, but powerful trachyandesitic tuff cone and lava dome complex that occupies an isolated part of the Chiapas region in SE México far from other Holocene volcanoes. Prior to 1982, this relatively unknown volcano was heavily forested and of no greater height than adjacent nonvolcanic peaks. The largest dome, the former summit of the volcano, was constructed within a 1.6 x 2 km summit crater created about 220,000 years ago. Two other large craters are located on the SW and SE flanks; a lava dome fills the SW crater, and an older dome is located on the NW flank. More than ten large explosive eruptions have occurred since the mid-Holocene. The powerful 1982 explosive eruptions of high-sulfur, anhydrite-bearing magma destroyed the summit lava dome and were accompanied by pyroclastic flows and surges that devastated an area extending about 8 km around the volcano. The eruptions created a new 1-km-wide, 300-m-deep crater that now contains an acidic crater lake.
The steaming crater of El Chichón volcano is seen here in January 1983, less than a year after a major explosive eruption formed a new 1-km-wide crater that later was partially filled by a steaming, acidic lake. The isolated El Chichón volcano is a small, but powerful andesitic tuff cone and lava dome complex. Prior to 1982, this relatively unknown volcano was heavily forested and of no greater height than adjacent non-volcanic peaks. More than a half dozen large explosive eruptions have occurred since the mid-Holocene.
Photo by Bill Rose, 1983 (Michigan Technological University).
Last updated 2019-09-11 12:00:03
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