Papayo Volcano
Updated: Apr 18, 2024 15:33 GMT -
lava dome 3600+ m / 11,811 ft
Central Mexico, 19.31°N / -98.7°W
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Central Mexico, 19.31°N / -98.7°W
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Papayo volcano is a small lava dome on the crest of the Sierra Nevada range 47 km SE of Mexico City. Papayo has produced large dacitic lava flows reaching up to 10 km length, and was last active less than 12,000 years ago, meaning it is to be considered potentially active.
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Papayo volcano eruptions: unknown, less than 10,000 years ago
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Background
The 3600-m-high postglacial Papayo lava dome, constructed along the crest of the Sierra Nevada range, is dwarfed by its massive neighbor Iztaccíhuatl volcano, 15 km to the SW. Papayo has been the source of voluminous dacitic lava flows that have traveled about 10 km from the vent both to the WSW and ENE. The steep-sided Cerro Papayo dacitic lava dome, rising 230 m above the surrounding lava flows, marks the vent. The 84 sq km compound lava field has a volume of about 21 cu km and includes flows that traveled long distances in opposite directions into the Valley of Mexico and toward the Puebla basin. Papayo lavas overlie glacial moraines about 12,000 years old (Nixon, 1989). On the western side the flows surround the glaciated late-Pleistocene lava and pyroclastic cone of Iztaltetlac.---
Sources:
- Smithsonian / GVP volcano information
- Nixon G T (1989) "The geology of Iztaccihuatl volcano and adjacent areas of the Sierra Nevada and Valley of Mexico", Geol Soc Amer Spec Pap, 219: 1-58
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