Nevado de Toluca, México

By ExploreNow Editor, on October 26th, 2011

Volcano Type:     Stratovolcano
Volcano Status:   Radiocarbon
Last Known Eruption:    1350 BC (?)
Summit Elevation:    4680+ m    15,354 feet
Latitude:    19.108°N    19°6’30″N
Longitude:    99.758°W    99°45’30″W

Nevado de Toluca, México’s fourth highest peak, rises above the Toluca basin about 80 km west of Mexico City. The broad, complex andesitic-dacitic stratovolcano, also known by the Nahuatl Indian name Xinantécatl, has a 1.5-km-wide summit crater that is open to the east. A large dacitic lava dome in this crater separates two lakes, known as the lakes of the Sun and Moon. At least three major edifice collapses during the Pleistocene produced large debris-avalanche and lahar deposits that affected broad areas below the volcano. Four major explosive eruptions during the late Pleistocene produced widespread ashfall and pyroclastic-flow deposits at about 36,000, 21,700, 12,100, and 10,500 years ago, producing the Ochre and the Lower, Middle, and Upper Toluca Pumice deposits, respectively. Recent work has revealed evidence for at least one Holocene eruption, about 3300 years ago, that produced pyroclastic flows and surges.

Nevado de Toluca

Nevado de Toluca Volcano is a strongly eroded central stratovolcano located about 80 km WSW of Mexico City within the 1,000 km-long Mexican Volcanic Belt. The volcano is the fourth highest mountain in Mexico. The northern flank of the volcano rises 2015 m above the Lerma River basin, and the southern flank rises 2900 m above Ixtapan de la Sal village.

Crater Lake

The crater of Nevado de Toluca shows the remains of two partial collapses of the volcano on the NE and SE flanks. The volcano has formed at the intersection of three fault systems with NW-SE, NE-SW, and E-W orientations. During the late Pleistocene (about 1 million years ago) the southern flank of the volcano collapsed twice. Avalanche depost have been found up to 55 km from the summit. The surface of the volcano has been carved by glacier activity during the past 10,000 years. The formation of the current volcano edifice began about 100,000 years ago. The most recent eruption at Nevado de Toluca Volcano occurred in the central crater about 3300 years ago. The volcano is considered dormant, but not yet extinct.