Antisana (Ecuador)

Status Normal Eruption 1802 5753m
Stratovolcano (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Antisana is a massive, glacier-covered stratovolcano NE of Cotopaxi, along the western margin of the Cordillera Real, 50 km SE of Quito. An older edifice forming the east side of the volcano was constructed over granitic and metasedimentary rocks and is itself overtopped on its NW side by the modern edifice. Two small calderas, one breached to the south and the other to the NE, truncate the older edifice. Viscous, youthful block lava flows have issued from radial fissures on the flanks of 5753-m-high Antisana, one of the highest peaks in Ecuador. The only unequivocal historical eruption took place from 1801 to 1802, when a lava flow was erupted from a vent NNE of the summit. Eighteenth-century eruptions occurred SW of Antisana, in the Chacana caldera.

Antisana is a massive, glacier-covered stratovolcano NE of Cotopaxi. The 1.4 x 1.8 km summit crater, seen here from the north, is breached to the SE. Viscous, youthful block lava flows have issued from radial fissures on the flanks of 5753-m-high Antisana. The only unequivocal historical eruption took place from 1801 to 1802. Eighteenth-century eruptions occurred NW of Antisana within Chacana caldera, which lies beneath the cloud bank in the foreground.

Photo by Minard Hall, 1975 (Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito).

Last updated 2019-10-16 11:00:03