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Lascar Volcano, Chile
Volcan Lascar (right) is the most active volcano of the northern Chilean Andes.
A steam plume rises in 1986 from one of six overlapping summit craters capping the andesitic-to-dacitic stratovolcano, which is seen here from Toconao to the NW.
Volcan Aguas Calientes (left center), an older, higher stratovolcano 5 km to the east, displays a well-developed summit crater and a probable Holocene lava flow near its summit.
Frequent explosive eruptions have been recorded from Lascar since the mid-19th century.
Lascar is the most active volcano of the northern Chilean Andes.
The andesitic-to-dacitic stratovolcano contains six overlapping summit craters.
Prominent lava flows descend its NW flanks.
An older, higher stratovolcano 5 km to the east, Volcan Aguas Calientes, displays a well-developed summit crater and a probable Holocene lava flow near its summit (de Silva and Francis, 1991).
Lascar consists of two major edifices; activity began at the eastern volcano and then shifted to the western cone.
The largest eruption of Lascar took place about 26,500 years ago, and following the eruption of the Tumbres scoria flow about 9000 years ago, activity shifted back to the eastern edifice, where three overlapping craters were formed.
Frequent small-to-moderate explosive eruptions have been recorded from Lascar in historical time since the mid-19th century, along with periodic larger eruptions that produced ashfall hundreds of kilometers away from the volcano.
The largest historical eruption of Lascar took place in 1993, producing pyroclastic flows to 8.5 km NW of the summit and ashfall in Buenos Aires.
PHOTO SOURCE: Paul King, MINSAL Corporation, 1986 (courtesy of Peter Francis, Open University), courtesy of the Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, used with permission.
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