Maipo (Chile-Argentina)

Status Normal Eruption 1912 5323m
Caldera (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Maipo

Maipo, a conical stratovolcano that straddles the Chile-Argentina border SE of Santiago, partially fills the 16 x 20 km Pleistocene Diamante caldera, which formed about 0.45 million years ago during an eruption that produced an about 350 km3 rhyolitic ignimbrite. The Pleistocene cones of Volcán Don Casimiro and Cerro Listado were formed on the SW rim and SW flank of the caldera, respectively. The post-caldera Maipo stratovolcano rises about 1900 m above the caldera floor and was constructed by strombolian-vulcanian explosions. It has a youthful appearance, and ashfall deposits overlie glacial ice. Several parasitic cones were constructed on the east flank of Maipo along a series on en échelon NE-trending fractures. Lava flows from one of these cones blocked drainages in 1826 inside the caldera, forming Lake Diamante on the eastern caldera floor.

Maipo volcano, seen here from the west, partially fills the Pleistocene Diamante caldera. The floor of the large 15 x 20 km caldera, which formed about 0.45 million years ago during an eruption that produced a 450 cu km ignimbrite, is visible below Maipo. The 5264-m-high basaltic-andesite stratovolcano has a relatively simple structure, but has a flank rhyodacitic lava-dome complex and pyroclastic cones on its eastern flank. Lava flows from these cones extend into Laguna Diamante on the eastern side of the caldera.

Photo by Wolfgang Foerster, courtesy of Oscar González-Ferrán (University of Chile).

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

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