Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
Volcano Status: Tephrochronology
Last Known Eruption: 700 AD ± 300 years
Summit Elevation: 6887 m 22,595 feet
Latitude: 27.12°S 27°7’0″S
Longitude: 68.55°W 68°33’0″W
Ojos del Salado, at 22,572′, is the second highest peak in the world outside of Asia, and the world’s highest volcano. It is a giant among giants, located in the Chilean Altiplano, comparable only with Tibet. It rises on the Chile-Argentina border and dominates a landscape of high volcanoes that tower to the east of the Altacama Desert. Monte Pissis (22,241 ft.), South America’s third highest mountain, rises nearby, to the south. Further south (roughly 350 miles), one finds the highest and fourth highest mountains, Aconcagua (22,841 ft.) and Mercedario (22,211 ft.). Because of its proximity to the desert, Ojos del Salado has little snow except in winter.
Nevados Ojos del Salado
The world’s highest active volcano, Nevados Ojos del Salado, rises to 6887 m along the Chile-Argentina border. The volcano lies about 20 km south of the road that crosses the international border at Paso de San Francisco. The summit complex, which is elongated in a NE-SW direction and overlies a largely buried caldera, contains numerous craters, pyroclastic cones and andesitic-to-rhyolitic lava domes and has been the source of Holocene lava flows. A major rhyodacitic explosive eruption took place about 1000-1500 years ago, producing pumiceous pyroclastic flows. The most recent eruptive activity of Ojos del Salado appears to have originated along a NNE-trending rift along the summit complex. It involved formation of a thick, viscous lava flow and at least a dozen small cones, lava domes, and explosion craters. No confirmed historical eruptions of Ojos del Salado have been recorded, but the volcano has displayed persistent fumarolic activity, and there was an unconfirmed report of minor gas-and-ash emission in 1993.
Nevados Ojos del Salado
The highest volcano on earth is also the highest point in Chile and second in South America. As the volcanic activity is quite recent, it´s classified as a neovolcano and there are still minor activity on the peak. Larger amounts of sulfuric gases and vapor were seen as late as 1994, but normally a faint smell och sulfur is the only sign of volcanic activity on the peak. Ojos del Salado is a border mountain and can be climbed from both Argetina and Chile.
Laguna Verde (Martin Pastene)
Nevados Ojos del Salado
Originally posted 2010-08-18 04:35:23.
