Cerro Miscanti (also known as Ipira) is a mountain located in the

Antofagasta Region The Antofagasta Region ( es, Región de Antofagasta, ) is one of Chile's sixteen first-order administrative divisions. The second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla. It is bordered t ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, immediately south of

Chiliques Chiliques is a stratovolcano located in the Antofagasta Region of Chile. Chiliques is capped off by a wide summit crater, which contains two crater lakes. One of these lakes is found in the northern part and the other east-southeastern part ...

and north of

Miñiques Miñiques is a massive volcanic complex containing a large number of craters, lava domes and flows, located in the Antofagasta Region of Chile. Located south of Volcán Chiliques and west of Cordón Puntas Negras, it is part of a frequentl ...

. It towers over

Laguna Miscanti Miscanti Lake (Spanish: ''Laguna Miscanti'') is a brackish water lake located in the altiplano of the Antofagasta Region in northern Chile. Cerro Miñiques volcano and Cerro Miscanti tower over this lake. This large heart-shaped lake has a deep ...

. Rock samples from Cerro Miscanti are of

andesitic Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

composition, but andesite-containing

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

s have also been found. The edifice covers an area of and bears traces of a westward collapse, which exposed the internal sector of the volcano. A new volcano grew inside the collapse scar. Miscanti may be either extinct or may have erupted in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

. Renewed eruptions are likely to consist of lava flows, which could impact the northern shores of Laguna Miscanti. An Inka sanctuary has been reported from Cerro Miscanti.

References

Volcanoes of Antofagasta Region Mountains of Chile Stratovolcanoes of Chile Pleistocene stratovolcanoes {{Antofagasta-geo-stub

See also

References