Acatenango (Guatemala)

Status Normal Eruption 1972 3976m
Stratovolcano(es) (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Acatenango

Acatenango, along with its twin volcano to the south, Volcán Fuego, overlooks the historic former capital city of Antigua, Guatemala. The two principal summits were constructed during three eruptive periods post-dating the roughly 85,000-year-old Los Chocoyos tephra from Atitlán caldera. An ancestral Acatenango volcano collapsed to the south sometime prior to 43,000 years ago, forming La Democracia debris-avalanche deposit, which covers a wide area of the Pacific coastal plain. Construction of Yepocapa, the northern summit of Acatenango, was completed about 20,000 years ago, after which growth of the southern and highest cone, Pico Central (also known as Pico Mayor), began. The first well-documented eruptions took place from 1924 to 1927, although earlier historical eruptions may have occurred. Francisco Vasquez, writing in 1690, noted that in 1661 a volcano that lay aside of Fuego "opened a smoking mouth and still gives off smoke from another three, but without noise."

Acatenango (right) forms a twin volcano with Fuego (center). This view from the NE shows the twin summits of Volcán Acatenango, which was constructed during three eruptive periods post-dating the roughly 84,000-year-old Los Chocoyos Ash from Atitlán caldera. Construction of Yepocapa, the northern summit of Acatenango, was completed about 20,000 years ago. Growth of the southern and highest cone, Pico Central (also known as Pico Mayor), began at that time.

Photo by Bill Rose, 1986 (Michigan Technological University).

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

View Acatenango Via Satellite

Camera

Latest activity