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Aragats
Panoramen
s
Aragats is a large andesitic-to-dacitic stratovolcano in NW Armenia about 40 km NW of the
capital city of Yerevan. The 4095-m-high main edifice of Aragats is dissected by glaciers and is
of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. Satellitic cones and fissures are located on all sides of the
volcano and were the source of large lava flows that descended its lower flanks. Several of these
were considered to be of Holocene age, but later Potassium-Argon dating indicated mid- to late-
Pleistocene ages. The youngest lower-flank flows have not been precisely dated, but are
constrained as occurring between the end of the late-Pleistocene and 3000 BC (Kharakanian et
al., 2003). A 13-km-long, WSW-ENE-trending line of craters and pyroclastic cones cuts across
the northern crater rim and is the source of young lava flows and lahars; the latter were
considered to be characteristic of Holocene summit eruptions. (Global Volcanism Program)
Armenia, June 2011
Photos: Rolf Cosar
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