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Country: | Chile/Argentina | |
| Subregion Name: | Northern Chile | ||
| Volcano Number: | 1505-13= | ||
| Volcano Type: | Stratovolcano | ||
| Volcano Status: | Tephrochronology | ||
| Last Known Eruption: | 700 AD ± 300 years | ||
| Summit Elevation: | 6887 m | 22,595 feet | |
| Latitude: | 27.12°S | 27°7'0"S | |
| Longitude: | 68.55°W | 68°33'0"W | |
| The world's highest active volcano, Nevados Ojos del Salado, rises to 6887 m along the Chile-Argentina border. The volcano lies about 20 km south of the road that crosses the international border at Paso de San Francisco. The summit complex, which is elongated in a NE-SW direction and overlies a largely buried caldera, contains numerous craters, pyroclastic cones and andesitic-to-rhyolitic lava domes and has been the source of Holocene lava flows. A major rhyodacitic explosive eruption took place about 1000-1500 years ago, producing pumiceous pyroclastic flows. The most recent eruptive activity of Ojos del Salado appears to have originated along a NNE-trending rift along the summit complex. It involved formation of a thick, viscous lava flow and at least a dozen small cones, lava domes, and explosion craters. No confirmed historical eruptions of Ojos del Salado have been recorded, but the volcano has displayed persistent fumarolic activity, and there was an unconfirmed report of minor gas-and-ash emission in 1993. | |||
