Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
Volcano Status: Radiocarbon
Last Known Eruption: 550 AD ± 150 years
Summit Elevation: 6310 m 20,702 feet
Latitude: 1.464°S 1°27’50″S
Longitude: 78.815°W 78°48’54″W
Glacier-clad, 6310-m-high Chimborazo, Ecuador’s highest volcano, anchors the southern end of the country’s “Avenue of Volcanoes” 30 km NW of the city of Riobamba. The dominantly andesitic-to-dacitic Chimborazo volcano is mostly of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. The volcano collapsed about 35,000 years ago, producing a major debris avalanche, whose deposits underlie Riobamba and temporarily dammed the Río Chambo, producing an ephemeral lake. Subsequent eruptions have been dominantly andesitic and constructed three edifices along an east-west line, the youngest and westernmost of which forms the current summit of Chimborazo. Although activity was at one time thought to have ceased during the very latest Pleistocene, recent work indicates that Chimborazo erupted more than a half dozen times during the Holocene, producing pyroclastic surges that reached down to 3800 m elevation.
Chimborazo volcano is a Late Pleistocene to Holocene stratovolcano located at the southwest end of the main Ecuadorian volcanic arc. The volcano is located 150 km south-southwest of Quito and 28 km northwest of Riobamba. Chimborazo is built on Western Cordillera.
Ice-capped Chimborazo is the highest volcano in the Northern Andean Volcanic Zone. The summit of Chimborazo is the farthest point from earth centre. Measured from the centre of the earth, it is 2229 m higher than Mt Everest. The volcano is located in the Chimborazo Fauna Reserve. Chimborazo is a potentially hazardous volcano due to its height, history of explosive eruptions, and closeness to populated areas in Ambato and Riobamba basins.
Originally posted 2010-08-24 04:15:32.
