Parinacota (Chile-Bolivia)

Status Normal Eruption 290 6336m
Stratovolcano (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Volcán Parinacota is the southernmost and youngest of a pair of volcanoes forming the Nevados de Payachata group along the Chile-Bolivia border. The symmetrical, 6336-m-high volcano forms a twin volcano with the dominantly Pleistocene, 6222-m-high Pomerape, which towers above a low saddle to the NE. Collapse of Parinacota about 8000 years ago produced a 6 km3 debris avalanche that traveled 22 km W and blocked drainages, forming Lake Chungará. Holocene eruptive activity has subsequently reconstructed the stratovolcano, which contains a pristine, 300-m-wide summit crater and youthful lava flows on the W flanks. Although no historical eruptions are known, Helium surface-exposure dates have been obtained for eruptions during the past two thousand years both from the main cone and the Ajata group of satellite cones and lava flows on the S and SW flanks.

Glacier-clad Volcán Parinacota rises to the NE above Laguna Chungará near the Chile-Bolivia border. The lake was formed when collapse of Parinacota about 8000 years ago produced a 6 cu km debris avalanche that traveled 22 km to the west and blocked drainages. Subsequent eruptions constructed the 6348-m-high symmetrical stratovolcano, which towers above late-Pleistocene andesitic-to-rhyolitic lava domes and flows in the middle ground.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 2004 (Smithsonian Institution).

Last updated 2019-08-04 00:28:03