Chiles is a
volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the Crust (geology), crust of a Planet#Planetary-mass objects, planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Ear ...
on the border of
Colombia and
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
. It lies south-east of the volcano
Cerro Negro de Mayasquer, and the two peaks are considered part of the same Chiles-Cerro Negro volcanic complex. The volcanoes, together with the
Cumbal are
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 predomin ...
in rock type.
[Plancha 447-447bis, 2003] A 1936 eruption reported by the Colombian government agency Ingeominas may have been from the Ecuadorean volcano
Reventador
Reventador is an active stratovolcano which lies in the eastern Andes of Ecuador. It lies in a remote area of the national park of the same name, which is Spanish for "exploder". Since 1541, it has erupted over 25 times, although its isolated loca ...
, otherwise the volcano has not erupted for around 160,000 years.
[
]
Recent activity
On 20 October 2014, the Servicio Geológico Colombiano (SGC) reported that a M 5.8 earthquake, the largest to date, occurred in the vicinity of the Cerro Negro de Mayasquer and Chiles volcanoes at a depth of less than 10 km. The event was felt to the north in Pasto
Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto (; "Saint John of Pasto"), is the capital of the department of Nariño, in southern Colombia. Pasto was founded in 1537 and named after indigenous people of the area. In the 2018 census, the city had app ...
, Colombia, and to the south in Quito, Ecuador.
On 21 October 2014 SGC raised the alert level for the volcanic complex to orange (level 3 of 4) noting that a seismic swarm characterized by 4,300 earthquakes was detected in an 18-hour period. Hypocenters were located 1–4 km southwest of Chiles volcano at depths of 3–5 km and local magnitudes between M 0.2 and 4.5. Inhabitants felt 11 of the events. On 22 October a report noted that the total number of earthquakes recorded on 21 October 2014 reached 7,717, which was the largest number of earthquakes recorded on one day since the installation of a local seismic network in November 2013. Several swarms have occurred in the area since February 2013. By the end of November 2014 over 132,000 earthquakes occurred within a narrow area .5 – 6 km SW of the summit of Chiles.
Associated hydrothermal systems
The Chiles-Cerro Negro volcanic complex has least two associated hydrothermal
Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...
areas that produce hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by c ...
s. The Aguas Hediondas spring is located in 2 miles (3.2 km) to the east of the volcano summit in Ecuador a few hundred meters from the border with Colombia. This location is noted for its intense sulfur odor (Aguas Hediondas translates to smelly waters), a consequence of exceptionally high level of hydrogen sulfide dissolved in the water. The hydrogen sulfide was measured by students at Yachay Tech and determined to be 154 mg/L, which is among the highest even measured in a terrestrial hot spring. The pH of this spring was measured at 4.5, and is one of the only acidic hot springs in Ecuador. The other hot springs group, called Aguas Termales de Tufiño, are located five miles to the east of the summit on the Colombia side of the border. These springs are compositionally distinct from Aguas Hediondas, with most springs having a neutral pH and negligible concentrations of hydrogen sulfide. There are commercial bathing pools at this location. The owners of these pools reported to Yachay Tech professors that the October 2014 Chiles-Cerro Negro earthquake swarm resulted in a visible change the water color that lasted several days before returning to the previous composition.
Gallery
File:Ipiales,fondo volcán Chiles.jpg, 2013
File:Volcán Chiles.JPG, 2015
File:Chiles flank in 2018.jpg, Eastern flank in 2018
See also
* List of volcanoes in Colombia
This is a list of active and extinct volcanoes in Colombia.
See also
* List of earthquakes in Colombia
* List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Colombia
* Geology of Colombia
References
{{South America topic, state=uncollaps ...
* List of volcanoes in Ecuador
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
* List of volcanoes by elevation
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
External links
Volcano.si.edu
{{Authority control
Andean Volcanic Belt
Mountains of Colombia
Mountains of Ecuador
Stratovolcanoes of Colombia
Stratovolcanoes of Ecuador
Quaternary South America
Quaternary volcanoes
20th-century volcanic events
Geography of Nariño Department
Geography of Carchi Province
Four-thousanders of the Andes