Chingo (Guatemala-El Salvador)

Status Unknown Eruption Unknown 1775m
Stratovolcano (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Volcán Chingo is a symmetrical stratovolcano that straddles the Guatemala/El Salvador border. A shallow, oval-shaped summit crater is breached on the W side. Other small stratovolcanoes and cinder cones are located on both sides of the volcano along a major N-S-trending fault. Youthful cones, such as Cerro de Olla, lie across the Salvadorian border to the S. To the N in Guatemala, Volcán las Viboras, a cinder cone that caps a basaltic shield volcano, is the most prominent of several fault-controlled cones near Laguna Atescatempo. Flank fissures have fed many youthful lava flows, particularly on the W flank of Chingo and the N flank of Volcán las Viboras. No historical eruptions are known from the Volcán Chingo volcanic field.

A cloudcap brushes the summit of Volcán Chingo, a prominent landmark on the Guatemala/El Salvador border. The symmetrical 1775-m-high stratovolcano is seen here from the SE on the Salvadoran side of the border. The light-brown hill below the volcano at right-center is Cerro Laguneta. Other flank vents are located on the NE side of the volcano, and a chain of N-S-trending vents extends long distances on both sides of the summit. Several youthful lava flows are found west and north of Volcán Chingo.

Photo by Giuseppina Kysar, 1999 (Smithsonian Institution).

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