El Misti
Location: 16.294° S, 71.409° W
Elevation: 5.822 m
El Misti is a symmetrical andesitic stratovolcano with
nested summit craters that towers above the city of
Arequipa. The modern symmetrical cone, constructed
within a small 1.5 x 2 km wide summit caldera that
formed between about 13,700 and 11,300 years ago,
caps older Pleistocene volcanoes that underwent
caldera collapse about 50,000 years ago. A large
scoria cone has grown with the 830-m-wide outer
summit crater of El Misti. At least 20 tephra-fall
deposits and numerous pyroclastic-flow deposits have
been documented during the past 50,000 years,
including a pyroclastic flow that traveled 12 km to the
south about 2000 years ago. El Misti's most recent activity has been dominantly pyroclastic, and
strong winds have formed a parabolic dune field of volcanic ash extending up to 20 km downwind.
An eruption in the 15th century affected Inca inhabitants living near the volcano. Some reports of
historical eruptions may represent increased fumarolic activity.
(Global Volcanism Program)
click on pictures
Photos: Rolf Cosar März 1985
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nested summit craters that towers above the city of
Arequipa. The modern symmetrical cone, constructed
within a small 1.5 x 2 km wide summit caldera that
formed between about 13,700 and 11,300 years ago,
caps older Pleistocene volcanoes that underwent
caldera collapse about 50,000 years ago. A large
scoria cone has grown with the 830-m-wide outer
summit crater of El Misti. At least 20 tephra-fall
deposits and numerous pyroclastic-flow deposits have
been documented during the past 50,000 years,
including a pyroclastic flow that traveled 12 km to the
south about 2000 years ago. El Misti's most recent activity has been dominantly pyroclastic, and
strong winds have formed a parabolic dune field of volcanic ash extending up to 20 km downwind.
An eruption in the 15th century affected Inca inhabitants living near the volcano. Some reports of
historical eruptions may represent increased fumarolic activity.
(Global Volcanism Program)
click on pictures
Photos: Rolf Cosar März 1985
HOME
