Glacier-clad, 6310-m-high Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest
volcano, anchors the southern end of the country's "Avenue of
Volcanoes" 30 km NW of the city of Riobamba. The
dominantly andesitic-to-dacitic Chimborazo volcano is mostly
of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. The volcano collapsed about
35,000 years ago, producing a major debris avalanche, whose
deposits underlie Riobamba and temporarily dammed the Río
Chambo, producing an ephemeral lake. Subsequent eruptions
have been dominantly andesitic and constructed three edifices
along an east-west line, the youngest and westernmost of which forms the current summit of Chimborazo.
Although activity was at one time thought to have ceased during the very latest Pleistocene, recent work
indicates that Chimborazo erupted more than a half dozen times during the Holocene, producing
pyroclastic surges that reached down to 3800 m elevation. (Global Volcanic Program)
Chimborazo
Location: 1.46° S, 78.82° W
Elevation: 6.310 m
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volcano, anchors the southern end of the country's "Avenue of
Volcanoes" 30 km NW of the city of Riobamba. The
dominantly andesitic-to-dacitic Chimborazo volcano is mostly
of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. The volcano collapsed about
35,000 years ago, producing a major debris avalanche, whose
deposits underlie Riobamba and temporarily dammed the Río
Chambo, producing an ephemeral lake. Subsequent eruptions
have been dominantly andesitic and constructed three edifices
along an east-west line, the youngest and westernmost of which forms the current summit of Chimborazo.
Although activity was at one time thought to have ceased during the very latest Pleistocene, recent work
indicates that Chimborazo erupted more than a half dozen times during the Holocene, producing
pyroclastic surges that reached down to 3800 m elevation. (Global Volcanic Program)
Chimborazo
Location: 1.46° S, 78.82° W
Elevation: 6.310 m
HOME
Click on pictures