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Chaiten Volcano, Chile
The dome-filled caldera of Chaiten volcano is seen in an aerial view from the south taken prior to an eruption in 2008.
The volcano is located 10 km NE of the town of Chaiten on the Gulf of Corcovado.
The elliptical 2.5 x 4 km wide summit caldera was formed during an eruption dated at about 9400 years ago.
A rhyolitic, 962-m-high obsidian lava dome occupies much of the caldera floor.
Chaiten is a small, glacier-free caldera with a Holocene lava dome located 10 km NE of the town of Chaiten on the Gulf of Corcovado.
A pyroclastic-surge and pumice layer that was considered to originate from the eruption that formed the elliptical 2.5 x 4 km wide summit caldera was dated at about 9400 years ago.
A rhyolitic, 962-m-high obsidian lava dome occupies much of the caldera floor.
Obsidian cobbles from this dome found in the Blanco River are the source of prehistorical artifacts from archaeological sites along the Pacific coast as far as 400 km away from the volcano to the north and south.
The caldera is breached on the SW side by a river that drains to the bay of Chaiten, and the high point on its southern rim reaches 1122 m.
Two small lakes occupy the caldera floor on the west and north sides of the lava dome.
The first historical eruption of Chaiten volcano in 2008 produced major rhyolitic explosive activity and growth of a lava dome that filled much of the caldera.
PHOTO SOURCE: Eric Manriquez T. (Instituto Geografico Militar), courtesy of the Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, used with permission.
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