Lauca (volcano)

Coordinates: 18°20′S 69°23′W / 18.333°S 69.383°W / -18.333; -69.383[1] Lauca volcano is a 5,140 metres (16,860 ft)[2] high andesitic stratovolcano in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes in the Altiplano in northern Chile. It was active 10.5 million years ago.[3] Amphibole rich lava flows formed a uniform volcanic cone. A later major ignimbrite eruption caused the collapse of the centre and formed the Lauca ignimbrite.[2] A caldera is present, with a lava dome at the northeastern rim.[2]

Andesites from the Lauca volcano exist in two groups, plagioclase rich ones which underwent alteration and fine grained silicic ones that are fresher.[2] The territory is underpinned with a crust formed from rocks of Precambrian to Cretaceous age, with thicknesses up to 70 kilometres (43 mi).[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Worner, Gerhardt; Lopez-Escobar, Leopoldo; Moorbath, Stephen; Horn, Susan; Entenmann, Jürgen; Harmon, Russel S.; Davidson, Jon D. (1992). "Variaciones geoquimicas, locales y regionales, en el frente volcanico cuaternario de los Andes centrales (17°30'-22°00'S), norte de Chile". Andean Geology (in Spanish). 19 (1). doi:10.5027/andgeoV19n1-a03. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wigger, edited by Klaus-Joachim Reutter, Ekkehard Scheuber, Peter J. (1994). Tectonics of the Southern Central Andes Structure and Evolution of an Active Continental Margin. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 81. ISBN 978-3-642-77353-2. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Kött, A.; Gaupp, R.; Wörner, G. (December 1995). "Miocene to recent history of the western Altiplano in northern Chile revealed by lacustrine sediments of the Lauca basin (18°15'-18°40'S/69°30'-69°05'W)". Geologische Rundschau. 84 (4). doi:10.1007/BF00240567.


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