The Sierra Nevada volcanic complex, located in one of the most inaccessible parts of the Central Andes, covers an area of about 225 km2 astride the Chile-Argentina border. The complex is of partial Holocene age and includes at least 12 volcanic vents with associated lava flows (de Silva and Francis, 1991). Craters up to 400 m in diameter and large andesitic lava flows that extend up to 7 km with well-developed flow ridges are present. The oldest part of the complex, at its eastern end in Argentina, includes two stratovolcanoes, one with a 1-km-wide summit crater.
The large snow-covered massif near the center of this NASA Space Shuttle image (with north to the upper left) is the Sierra Nevada volcanic complex. The complex covers an area of about 225 sq km astride the Chile-Argentina border and includes at least a dozen volcanic vents with associated lava flows. Two large Pleistocene calderas lie south of Sierra Nevada, the 22-km-wide Wheelright caldera (part of which is visible at the lower left) and Escondida at the bottom center, with a lake on its caldera floor.
NASA Space Shuttle image STS100-710-48, 2001 (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/).
Last updated 2019-08-04 00:28:03
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