Huaynaputina ( ; ) is a
volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...
in a volcanic
high plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...
in southern
Peru
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, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
. Lying in the
Central Volcanic Zone of the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
, it was formed by the
subduction
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...
of the oceanic
Nazca Plate under the continental
South American Plate. Huaynaputina is a large
volcanic crater
A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an und ...
, lacking an identifiable mountain profile, with an outer stratovolcano and three younger volcanic vents within an
amphitheatre
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
-shaped structure that is either a former
caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
or a remnant of
glacial
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
erosion. The volcano has erupted
dacitic
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 rhyol ...
magma.
In the
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 ...
, Huaynaputina has erupted several times, including on 19February 1600 – the largest eruption ever recorded in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
– which continued with a series of events into March. Witnessed by people in the city of
Arequipa
Arequipa (; Aymara and qu, Ariqipa) is a city and capital of province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru". It is the second most populated city ...
, it killed at least 1,000–1,500 people in the region, wiped out vegetation, buried the surrounding area with of volcanic rock and damaged infrastructure and economic resources. The eruption had a significant impact on Earth's climate, causing a
volcanic winter
A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, particularly explosiv ...
: temperatures in the
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
decreased; cold waves hit parts of Europe, Asia and the Americas; and the climate disruption may have played a role in the onset of the
Little Ice Age. Floods, famines, and social upheavals resulted. This eruption has been computed to measure 6 on the
Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI).
The volcano has not erupted since 1600. There are
fumarole
A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...
s in the amphitheatre-shaped structure, and
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 occur in the region, some of which have been associated with Huaynaputina. The volcano lies in a remote region where there is little human activity, but about 30,000 people live in the immediately surrounding area, and another one million in the
Arequipa metropolitan area
The Arequipa Metropolitan Area is the name used to refer to the metropolitan area whose principal city is Arequipa, according to Metropolitan Development Plan of Arequipa According to population statistics of INEI It is the second most populous ...
. If an eruption similar to the 1600 event were to occur, it would quite likely lead to a high death toll and cause substantial socioeconomic disruption. The Peruvian Geophysical Institute announced in 2017 that Huaynaputina would be monitored by the Southern Volcanological Observatory, and
seismic
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
observation began in 2019.
Name
The name Huaynaputina, also spelled Huayna Putina, was given to the volcano after the 1600 eruption.
According to one translation cited by the
Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Huayna means 'new', and Putina means 'fire-throwing mountain'; the full name is meant to suggest the aggressiveness of its volcanic activity and refers to the 1600 eruption being its first one.
Two other translations are 'young boiling one' – perhaps a reference to earlier eruptions – or 'where young were boiled', which may refer to
human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
s. Other names for the volcano include Chequepuquina, Chiquimote, Guayta, Omate and Quinistaquillas.
The volcano
El Misti was sometimes confused with and thus referred to mistakenly as Huaynaputina.
Geography
The volcano is part of the
Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes. Other volcanoes in this zone from northwest to southeast include
Sara Sara
Sara Sara is a volcano lying between Lake Parinacochas and the Ocoña River in Peru. It is situated in the Parinacochas Province and the Paucar del Sara Sara Province. The volcano formed during the Pleistocene during four different stages of ...
,
Coropuna
Coropuna is a dormant compound volcano located in the Andes mountains of southeast-central Peru. The upper reaches of Coropuna consist of several perennially snowbound conical summits, lending it the name Nevado Coropuna in Spanish. The compl ...
,
Ampato,
Sabancaya
Sabancaya is an active stratovolcano in the Andes of southern Peru, about northwest of Arequipa. It is considered part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, one of the three distinct volcanic belts of the Andes. The Central Volcanic Zone i ...
, El Misti,
Ubinas
Ubinas is an active stratovolcano in the Moquegua Region of southern Peru, approximately east of the city of Arequipa. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it rises above sea level. The volcano's summit is cut by a and caldera, ...
,
Ticsani
Ticsani is a volcano in Peru northwest of Moquegua and consists of two volcanoes ("Old Ticsani" and "Modern Ticsani") that form a complex. "Old Ticsani" is a compound volcano that underwent a large collapse in the past and shed of mass down the ...
,
Tutupaca
Tutupaca is a volcano in the region of Tacna in Peru. It is part of the Peruvian segment of the Central Volcanic Zone, one of several volcanic belts in the Andes. Tutupaca consists of three overlapping volcanoes formed by lava flows and lava ...
and
Yucamane
Yucamane, Yucamani or Yucumane is an andesitic stratovolcano in the Tacna Region of southern Peru. It is part of the Peruvian segment of the Central Volcanic Zone, one of the three volcanic belts of the Andes generated by the subduction of the ...
. Ubinas is the most active volcano in Peru; Huaynaputina, El Misti, Sabancaya, Ticsani, Tutupaca, Ubinas and Yucamane have been active in historical time, while Sara Sara, Coropuna, Ampato,
Casiri and
Chachani
Chachani is a volcanic group in southern Peru, northwest of the city of Arequipa. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it is above sea level. It consists of several lava domes and individual volcanoes such as Nocarane, along with ...
are considered to be
dormant. Most volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone are large
composite volcano
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and peri ...
es that can remain active over the span of several million years, but there are also conical stratovolcanoes with shorter lifespans. In the Central Volcanic Zone, large
explosive eruptions with
Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6 and higher occur on average every 2,000 to 4,000 years.
Huaynaputina is in the
Omate
Omate is a town in Southern Peru, capital of the province General Sánchez Cerro in the region Moquegua
Moquegua (, founded by the Spanish colonists as Villa de Santa Catalina de Guadalcázar del Valle de Moquegua) is a city in southern Peru ...
and
Quinistaquillas Districts, which are part of the
General Sánchez Cerro Province
The General Sánchez Cerro Province is the smallest of three provinces in the Moquegua Region of Peru. The capital of the province is Omate. The province was named after the former Peruvian army officer and president Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro.
B ...
in the
Moquegua Region
Moquegua () is a department and region in southern Peru that extends from the coast to the highlands. Its capital is the city of Moquegua, which is among the main Peruvian cities for its high rates of GDP and national education.
Geography
The ...
of southern
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
. The town of
Omate
Omate is a town in Southern Peru, capital of the province General Sánchez Cerro in the region Moquegua
Moquegua (, founded by the Spanish colonists as Villa de Santa Catalina de Guadalcázar del Valle de Moquegua) is a city in southern Peru ...
lies southwest of Huaynaputina. The city of
Moquegua
Moquegua (, founded by the Spanish colonists as Villa de Santa Catalina de Guadalcázar del Valle de Moquegua) is a city in southern Peru, located in the Department of Moquegua, of which it is the capital. It is also capital of Mariscal Nieto Pr ...
is south-southwest of the volcano and
Arequipa
Arequipa (; Aymara and qu, Ariqipa) is a city and capital of province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru". It is the second most populated city ...
is to its north-northwest.
The region is generally remote and the terrain extreme, the area around Huaynaputina is not easily accessible and human activity low. Within of Huaynaputina there are a number of small farms. A cattle-grazing footpath leads from Quinistaquillas to the volcano, and it is possible to approach the volcano over surrounding ash plains. The landscapes around the volcano have unique characteristics that make them an important geological heritage.
Structure
Huaynaputina lies at an elevation of about .
It consists of an outer composite volcano, or stratovolcano, and three younger volcanic vents nested within an amphitheatre that is wide and deep. This
horseshoe-shaped
Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a bell-shaped curve has the shape of the vertical ...
structure opens eastwards and is set in the older volcano at an elevation of . The amphitheatre lies at the margin of a rectangular high
plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...
that is covered by about thick ash, extending over an area of . The volcano has generally modest dimensions and rises less than above the surrounding terrain, but the products of the volcano's 1600 eruption cover much of the region especially west, north and south from the amphitheatre. These include
pyroclastic flow
A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...
dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
s that crop out from underneath the
tephra
Tephra is fragmental material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism.
Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground, they rem ...
. Deposits from the 1600 eruption and previous events also crop out within the amphitheatre walls. Another southeastward-opening landslide scar lies just north of Huaynaputina.
One of these funnel-shaped vents is a trough that cuts into the amphitheatre. The trough appears to be a remnant of a
fissure vent
A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure, eruption fissure or simply a fissure, is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is often a few metres wide and may be many kilom ...
. A second vent appears to have been about wide before the development of a third vent, which has mostly obscured the first two. The third vent is steep-walled, with a depth of ; it contains a pit that is wide, set within a small mound that is in part nested within the second vent. This third vent is surrounded by concentric
faults.
At least one of the vents has been described as an ash cone. A fourth vent lies on the southern slope of the composite volcano outside of the amphitheatre and has been described as a
maar. It is about wide and deep and appears to have formed during a
phreatomagmatic
Phreatomagmatic eruptions are volcanic eruptions resulting from interaction between magma and water. They differ from exclusively magmatic eruptions and phreatic eruptions. Unlike phreatic eruptions, the products of phreatomagmatic eruptions cont ...
eruption. These vents lie at an elevation of about , making them among the highest vents of a
Plinian eruption in the world.
Slumps have buried parts of the amphitheatre.
Dacitic
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 rhyol ...
dykes crop out within the amphitheatre and are aligned along a northwest–south trending
lineament ''See also Line (geometry)''
A lineament is a linear feature in a landscape which is an expression of an underlying geological structure such as a fault. Typically a lineament will appear as a fault-aligned valley, a series of fault or fold-ali ...
that the younger vents are also located on. These dykes and a
dacitic
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 rhyol ...
lava dome of similar composition were formed before the 1600 eruption. Faults with recognizable
scarps occur within the amphitheatre and have offset the younger vents; some of these faults existed before the 1600 eruption while others were activated during the event.
Surroundings
The terrain west of the volcano is a high plateau at an elevation of about ; north of Huaynaputina the volcano Ubinas and the depression of
Laguna Salinas lie on the plateau, while the peaks Cerro El Volcán and Cerro Chen are situated south of it. The lava dome Cerro El Volcán and another small lava dome, Cerro Las Chilcas, lie south from Huaynaputina. Northeast-east of Huaynaputina, the terrain drops off steeply ( vertically and horizontally) into the
Río Tambo valley, which rounds Huaynaputina east and south of the volcano. Some tributary valleys join the Río Tambo from Huaynaputina; clockwise from the east these are the Quebradas Huaynaputina, Quebrada Tortoral, Quebrada Aguas Blancas and Quebrada del Volcán. The Río Tambo eventually flows southwestward into the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
.
Geology
![MAGMAARC1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/MAGMAARC1.jpg)
The oceanic
Nazca tectonic plate is
subduct
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...
ing at a rate of beneath the continental part of the
South American tectonic plate; this process is responsible for volcanic activity and the uplift of the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
mountains and of the
Altiplano
The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the ...
plateau. The subduction is oblique, leading to
strike-slip faulting. Volcanic activity does not occur along the entire length of the Andes; where subduction is shallow, there are gaps with little volcanic activity. Between these gaps lie volcanic belts: the
Northern Volcanic Zone
The Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andean cordillera in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is formed as a result of subduction of the Nazca Plate and Antarctic Plate underneath the South Ame ...
, the Central Volcanic Zone, the
Southern Volcanic Zone
The Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andean cordillera in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is formed as a result of subduction of the Nazca Plate and Antarctic Plate underneath the South American ...
and the
Austral Volcanic Zone
The Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andes, Andean cordillera in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is formed as a result of subduction of the Nazca Plate and Antarctic Plate underneath the South Am ...
.
There are about 400
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58[Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...](_blank)
volcanoes in Peru, with Quaternary activity occurring only in the southern part of the country. Peruvian volcanoes are part of the Central Volcanic Zone. Volcanic activity in that zone has moved eastward since the
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
. Remnants of the older volcanism persist in the coastal
Cordillera de la Costa but the present-day
volcanic arc
A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate,
with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above. Volcanic arcs typically parallel an oceanic trench, with the arc lo ...
lies in the Andes, where it is defined by
stratovolcano
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...
es. Many Peruvian volcanoes are poorly studied because they are remote and difficult to access.
The
basement underneath Huaynaputina is formed by almost
sediments
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundame ...
and
volcanic intrusions of
Paleozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon.
The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838
by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...
to
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...
age including the Yura Group, as well as the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
Matalaque Formation of volcanic origin – these are all units of rock that existed before the formation of Huaynaputina. During the
Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
, these were overlaid by a total of deposits from the
ignimbritic Capillune, Llallahui and Sencca
Formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
s – all older rock units. Cretaceous sediments and Paleogene–Neogene volcanic rocks form the high plateau around Huaynaputina. The emplacement of the Capillune Formation continued into the earliest Pliocene; subsequently the
Plio-Pleistocene
The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5&nb ...
Barroso Group was deposited. It includes the composite volcano that hosts Huaynaputina as well as ignimbrites that appear to come from
caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
s. One such caldera is located just south of Huaynaputina. The late
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 ...
to
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 ...
volcanoes have been classified as the Arequipa Volcanics.
Local
The vents of Huaynaputina trend from the north-northwest to the south-southeast, and this trend encompasses the neighbouring volcanoes Ubinas and Ticsani. Ubinas is a typical stratovolcano while Ticsani has a similar structure to Huaynaputina. These volcanoes constitute a
volcanic field
A volcanic field is an area of Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters of up to 100 volcanoes ...
located behind the major volcanic arc, associated with faults at the margin of the Río Tambo
graben and regional strike-slip faults. The faults associated with the volcanic complex have influenced the evolution of the constituent volcanoes including Huaynaputina by acting as conduits for ascending
magma
Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...
especially at fault intersections. The volcanic rocks produced by these volcanoes have similar compositions, and historical seismic and volcanic activity at Ubinas and Ticsani indicate that they share a magma reservoir. A magma reservoir may underpin this volcanic system.
Composition
The eruption products of the 1600 eruption are
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, which define a
calc-alkaline
The calc-alkaline magma series is one of two main subdivisions of the subalkaline magma series, the other subalkaline magma series being the tholeiitic series. A magma series is a series of compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic m ...
,
potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...
-rich suite sometimes described as
adakitic.
The 1600 rocks also contain
rhyolite
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...
inclusions and a rhyolite
matrix
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...
.
Andesite
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 predomi ...
has also been found at Huaynaputina.
Phenocryst
300px, feldspathic phenocrysts. This granite, from the Switzerland">Swiss side of the Mont Blanc massif, has large white plagioclase phenocrysts, triclinic minerals that give trapezoid shapes when cut through). 1 euro coins, 1 euro coin (diameter ...
s include
biotite,
chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mo ...
,
hornblende
Hornblende is a complex inosilicate series of minerals. It is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole. Hornblende minerals are common in igneous and metamorphic rock ...
,
ilmenite
Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing ...
,
magnetite
Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...
and
plagioclase
Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more pro ...
;
amphibole
Amphibole () is a group of inosilicate minerals, forming prism or needlelike crystals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures. Its IMA symbol is A ...
,
apatite
Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of OH−, F− and Cl− ions, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of the three most common e ...
and
pyroxene
The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...
have been reported as well. Aside from newly formed volcanic rocks, Huaynaputina in 1600 also erupted material that is derived from rocks underlying the volcano, including sediments and older volcanic rocks, both of which were
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 ...
ly altered.
Pumice
Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular v ...
s from Huaynaputina are white.
The amount of volatiles in the magma appears to have decreased during the 1600 eruption, indicating that it originated either in two separate
magma chamber
A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it up ...
s or from one zoned chamber. This may explain changes in the eruption phenomena during the 1600 activity as the "Dacite 1" rocks erupted early during the 1600 event were more buoyant and contained more gas and thus drove a Plinian eruption, while the latter "Dacite 2" rocks were more viscous and only generated
Vulcanian eruption
A Vulcanian eruption is a type of volcanic eruption characterized by a dense cloud of ash-laden gas exploding from the crater and rising high above the peak. They usually commence with phreatomagmatic eruptions which can be extremely noisy due t ...
s. Interactions with the
crust and
crystal fractionation processes were involved in the genesis of the magmas as well, with the so-called "Dacite 1" geochemical suite forming deep in the crust, while the "Dacite 2" geochemical suite appears to have interacted with the upper crust.
The rocks had a temperature of about when they were erupted, with the "Dacite 1" being hotter than the "Dacite 2". Their formation may have been stimulated by the entry of
mafic
A mafic mineral or rock is a silicate mineral or igneous rock rich in magnesium and iron. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. Common mafic rocks incl ...
magmas into the magmatic system; such an entry of new magma in a volcanic system is often the trigger for explosive eruptions. The magmas erupted early during the 1600 event (in the first stage of the eruption) appear to have originated from depths of more than ;
petrological
Petrology () is the branch of geology that studies rocks and the conditions under which they form. Petrology has three subdivisions: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology. Igneous and metamorphic petrology are commonly taught together ...
analysis indicates that some magmas came from depths greater than and others from about . An older hypothesis by de Silva and Francis held that the entry of water into the magmatic system may have triggered the eruption. A 2006 study argues that the entry of new dacitic magma into an already existing dacitic magma system triggered the 1600 eruption; furthermore movement of deep andesitic magmas that had generated the new dacite produced movements within the volcano.
Eruption history
The ancestral composite volcano that holds Huaynaputina is part of the Pastillo volcanic complex, which developed in the form of thick andesitic rocks after the Miocene, and appears to be of Miocene to Pleistocene age. It underwent
sector collapse
A sector collapse is the collapse of a portion of a volcano due to a phreatic eruption, an earthquake, or the intervention of new magma. Occurring on many volcanoes, sector collapses are generally one of the most hazardous volcanic events, and will ...
s and
glacial erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust, and then sediment transport, tra ...
, which altered its appearance and its flanks. The amphitheatre which contains the Huaynaputina vents formed probably not as a caldera but either a glacial
cirque
A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...
, a sector collapse scar or another kind of structure that was altered by fluvial and glacial erosion. Other extinct volcanoes in the area have similar amphitheatre structures. It is likely that the development of the later Huaynaputina volcano within the composite volcano is coincidental, although a similar
tectonic
Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...
stress field controlled the younger vents.
Recently emplaced,
postglacial
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 ...
dacite bodies occur in the Huaynaputina area, some of which probably formed shortly before the 1600 eruption. Cerro Las Chilcas also predates the 1600 eruption and appears to be the earliest volcanic centre in the area. The Cerro El Volcán dome formed during the Quaternary and may be the remnant of a cluster of lava domes south of Huaynaputina.
Holocene
Tephra and
block-and-ash flow deposits from Holocene eruptions can be found within the amphitheatre. Some tephra layers that are 7,000 to 1,000 years old and close to Ubinas volcano have been attributed to activity at Huaynaputina.
Three eruptions of the volcano have been dated to 9,700 ± 190, less than 7,480 ± 40 years ago and 5,750 years
Before Present
Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becaus ...
, respectively.
The first two eruptions produced pumice falls and
pyroclastic flow
A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...
s. The first of these, a
Plinian eruption, also deposited tephra in Laguna Salinas, north of Huaynaputina, and produced a block-and-ash flow to its south. A debris avalanche deposit crops out on the eastern side of the Río Tambo, opposite to the amphitheatre; it may have been formed not long before the 1600 eruption.
The existence of a volcano at Huaynaputina was not recognized before the 1600 eruption, with no known previous eruptions other than
fumarolic
A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volc ...
activity.
As a result, the 1600 eruption has been referred to as an instance of
monogenetic volcanism. The pre-1600 topography of the volcano was described as "a low ridge in the center of a Sierra", and it is possible that a cluster of lava domes existed at the summit before the 1600 eruption which was blown away during the event.
The last eruption before 1600 may have preceded that year by several centuries, based on the presence of volcanic eruption products buried under soil. Native people reportedly offered sacrifices and offerings to the mountain such as birds, personal clothing and sheep,
although it is known that non-volcanic mountains in southern Peru received offerings as well. There have been no eruptions since 1600;
a report of an eruption in 1667 is unsubstantiated and unclear owing to the sparse historical information. It probably reflects an eruption at Ubinas instead.
Fumaroles and hot springs
Fumaroles occur in the amphitheatre close to the three vents, on the third vent, and in association with dykes that crop out in the amphitheatre. In 1962, there were reportedly no fumaroles within the amphitheatre. These fumaroles produce white fumes and smell of rotten eggs. The fumarolic gas composition is dominated by
water vapour
(99.9839 °C)
, -
, Boiling point
,
, -
, specific gas constant
, 461.5 J/( kg·K)
, -
, Heat of vaporization
, 2.27 MJ/kg
, -
, Heat capacity
, 1.864 kJ/(kg·K)
Water vapor, water vapour or aqueous vapor is the gaseous pha ...
, with smaller quantities of
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
and
sulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
gases. Investigations in 2010 recorded temperatures of for the gases, with seasonal variations. Vegetation has grown at their vents.
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 occur in the region and some of these have been associated with Huaynaputina; these include Candagua and Palcamayo northeast, Agua Blanca and Cerro Reventado southeast from the volcano on the Río Tambo and Ullucan almost due west. The springs have temperatures ranging from and contain large amounts of dissolved
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
s. Cerro Reventado and Ullucan appear to be fed from magmatic water and a deep reservoir, while Agua Blanca is influenced by surface waters.
1600 eruption
Based on historical records, Huaynaputina's eruption commenced on 19February 1600 (following earthquakes that began four days prior), with the earliest signs of the impending eruption perhaps in December1599. The duration of the eruption is not well constrained but may have lasted up to 12–19 hours. The event continued with earthquakes and ash fall for about two weeks and ended on 6March; the air was clear of ash from the eruption on 2April 1600. Some reports of late ash falls may be due to wind-transported ash, and there are no deposits from a supposed eruption in August1600; such reports may refer to
mudflow
A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/second. Mudflows contain a significa ...
s or explosions in pyroclastic flows.
The eruption of 1600 was initially attributed to Ubinas volcano and sometimes to El Misti.
Priests observed and recorded the eruption from Arequipa, and the
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...
Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa wrote a second-hand account of the eruption based on a witness's report from the city. The scale of the eruption and its impact on climate have been determined from historical records,
tree ring
Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...
data, the position of
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s, the thickness of
speleothem
A speleothem (; ) is a geological formation by mineral deposits that accumulate over time in natural caves. Speleothems most commonly form in calcareous caves due to carbonate dissolution reactions. They can take a variety of forms, depending on ...
s and ice, plant
flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
ing times,
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
harvests and
coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
growth.
Stratigraphically, the eruption deposits have been subdivided into five
formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
s.
Prelude and sequence of events
The eruption may have been triggered when new, "Dacite 1" magma entered into a magmatic system containing "Dacite 2" magma and pressurized the system, causing magma to begin ascending to the surface. In the prelude to the eruption, magma moving upwards to the future vents caused earthquakes beginning at a shallow reservoir at a depth of ; according to the accounts of priests, people in Arequipa fled their houses out of fear that they would collapse. The rising magma appears to have intercepted an older hydrothermal system that existed as much as below the vents; parts of the system were expelled during the eruption. Once the magma reached the surface, the eruption quickly became intense.
A first
Plinian stage took place on 19 and 20February, accompanied by an increase of earthquake activity. The first Plinian event lasted for about 20 hours and formed pumice deposits close to the vent that were thick.
The pumice was buried by the ash erupted during this stage, which has been recorded as far as
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
. This stage of the eruption produced at least of rocks, comprising the bulk of the output from the 1600 eruption. A sustained
eruption column
An eruption column or eruption plume is a cloud of super-heated Volcanic ash, ash and tephra suspended in volcanic gas, gases emitted during an explosive volcanic eruption. The volcanic materials form a vertical column or Plume (fluid dynamics), ...
about high likely created a
mushroom cloud
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke and usually condensed water vapor resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently ener ...
that darkened the sky, obscuring the sun and the stars. Afterwards, collapses in the amphitheatre and within the vent enlarged both features; they also decreased the intensity of the eruption. A first pyroclastic flow was deposited already during this time when the column became unstable.
The Plinian stage was channelled by a
fracture and had the characteristics of a fissure-fed eruption.
Possibly, the second vent formed during this stage, but another interpretation is that the second vent is actually a collapse structure that formed late during the eruption. Much of the excavation of the conduit took place during this stage.
After a hiatus the volcano began erupting pyroclastic flows; these were mostly constrained by the topography and were erupted in stages, intercalated by ash fall that extended to larger distances. Most of these pyroclastic flows accumulated in valleys radiating away from Huaynaputina, reaching distances of from the vents.
Winds blew ash from the pyroclastic flows, and rain eroded freshly deposited pyroclastic deposits. Ash fall and pyroclastic flows alternated during this stage, probably caused by brief obstructions of the vent; at this time a lava dome formed within the second vent. A change in the composition of the erupted rocks occurred, the "Dacite 1" geochemical suite being increasingly modified by the "Dacite 2" geochemical suite that became dominant during the third stage.
Pyroclastic flows ran down the slopes of the volcano, entered the Río Tambo valley and formed dams on the river, probably mainly at the mouth of the Quebrada Aguas Blancas; one of the two dammed lakes was about long. When the dams failed, the lakes released hot water with floating pumice and debris down the Río Tambo. The deposits permanently altered the course of the river. The volume of the ignimbrites has been estimated to be about , excluding the ash that was erupted during this stage. The pyroclastic flows along with pumice falls covered an area of about .
In the third stage, Vulcanian eruptions took place at Huaynaputina and deposited another ash layer; it is thinner than the layer produced by the first stage eruption and appears to be partly of phreatomagmatic origin. During this stage the volcano also emitted
lava bomb
A volcanic bomb or lava bomb is a mass of partially molten rock (tephra) larger than 64 mm (2.5 inches) in diameter, formed when a volcano ejects viscous fragments of lava during an eruption. Because volcanic bombs cool after they l ...
s; the total volume of erupted tephra is about . This third stage destroyed the lava dome and formed the third vent, which then began to settle along the faults as the underlying magma was exhausted. The fourth vent formed late during the eruption, outside of the amphitheatre.
Witness observations
The eruption was accompanied by intense earthquakes, deafening explosions and noises that could be heard beyond
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
and as far away as . In Arequipa, the sky was illuminated by
lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
, and ash fell so thick that houses collapsed. The noise of the eruption was perceived as resembling artillery fire. There and in
Copacabana the sky became dark. The blasts of the eruption could be heard (anecdotally) as far as Argentina and in the coastal localities of Lima,
Chiquiabo and
Arica
Arica ( ; ) is a commune and a port city with a population of 222,619 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only south of the border with Peru. The city is the capita ...
. In these coastal localities it was thought that the sound came from naval engagements, likely with
English corsairs. In view of this, the
Viceroy of Peru
The viceroys of Peru ruled the Viceroyalty of Peru from 1544 to 1824 in the name of the monarch of Spain. The territories under ''de jure'' rule by the viceroys included in the 16th and 17th century almost all of South America except eastern Braz ...
sent reinforcement troops to
El Callao
Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists of the whole Call ...
. Closer to the vents, inhabitants of the village of Puquina saw large tongues of fire rising into the sky from Huaynaputina before they were enveloped by raining pumice and ash.
Caldera collapse
It was initially assumed that caldera collapse took place during the 1600 event, as accounts of the eruption stated that the volcano was obliterated to its foundation; later investigation suggested otherwise. Normally very large volcanic eruptions are accompanied by the formation of a caldera, but exceptions do exist. This might reflect either the regional tectonics or the absence of a shallow magma chamber, which prevented the collapse of the chamber from reaching the surface; most of the magma erupted in 1600 originated at a depth of . Some collapse structures did nevertheless develop at Huaynaputina, in the form of two not readily recognizable circular areas within the amphitheatre and around the three vents, probably when the magmatic system depressurized during the eruption. Also, part of the northern flank of the amphitheatre collapsed during the eruption, and some of the debris fell into the Río Tambo canyon.
Volume and products
The 1600 eruption had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6 and is considered to be the only major explosive eruption of the Andes in historical time.
It is the largest volcanic eruption throughout South America in historical time, as well as one of the largest in the last millennium and the largest historical eruption in the
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...
. It was larger than the
1883 eruption of
Krakatoa
Krakatoa (), also transcribed (), is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group ( Krakatoa archipelago) comprising four islands. T ...
in Indonesia and the
1991 eruption of
Pinatubo in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. Huaynaputina's eruption column was high enough to penetrate the
tropopause
The tropopause is the atmospheric boundary that demarcates the troposphere from the stratosphere; which are two of the five layers of the atmosphere of Earth. The tropopause is a thermodynamic gradient-stratification layer, that marks the end of ...
and influence the climate of Earth.
The total volume of volcanic rocks erupted by Huaynaputina was about , in the form of dacitic tephra, pyroclastic flows and pyroclastic surges,
although smaller estimates have been proposed. It appears that the bulk of the fallout originated during the first stage of the eruption, the second and third stage contributing a relatively small portion. For comparison, another large Holocene eruption in the Central Andes
—the eruption of
Cerro Blanco
Cerro Blanco is a hill and historical landmark in the city of Santiago, Chile. This geographic feature
rises above the surrounding terrain and covers a surface area of . It is bordered by Recoleta Avenue on the east, Santos Dumont Avenue on ...
in Argentina about 2,300 ± 60
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
—produced a bulk volume of of rock, equivalent to a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7. Estimates have been made for the
dense-rock equivalent
Dense-rock equivalent (DRE) is a volcanologic calculation used to estimate volcanic eruption volume. One of the widely accepted measures of the size of a historic or prehistoric eruption is the volume of magma ejected as pumice and volcanic ash, k ...
of the Huaynaputina eruption, ranging between ,
with a 2019 estimate, that accounts for far-flung tephra, of .
Tephra fallout
![Huaynaputina tephra fallout](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Huaynaputina_tephra_fallout.svg)
Ash fall from Huaynaputina reached a thickness of within a area of southern Peru, Bolivia and Chile, and of over closer to the volcano.
The tephra was deposited in a major westerly lobe and a minor northerly lobe; this is an unusual distribution, as tephra from volcanoes in the Central Andes is usually carried eastward by winds.
The deposition of the tephra was influenced by topography
and wind changes during the eruption, which led to changes in the fallout pattern. The ash deposits from the eruption are visible to this day, and several
archeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
s are preserved under them.
Some tephra was deposited on the volcanoes El Misti and Ubinas,
into lakes of southern Peru such as Laguna Salinas,
possibly into a peat bog close to Sabancaya volcano where it reached thicknesses of ,
as far south as in the Peruvian
Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...
where it forms discontinuous layers and possibly to the
Cordillera Vilcabamba in the north.
Ash layers about thick were noted in the
ice caps of
Quelccaya in Peru and
Sajama in Bolivia, although the deposits in Sajama may instead have originated from Ticsani volcano. Reports of Huaynaputina-related ashfall in
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
are implausible, as Nicaragua is far from Huaynaputina and has several local volcanoes that could generate tephra fallout.
The Huaynaputina ash layer has been used as a
tephrochronological marker for the region, for example in
archeology and in geology, where it was used to date an eruption in the
Andagua volcanic field and
fault movements that could have produced destructive
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
s.
The ash layer, which may have reached as far as
East Rongbuk Glacier
The Rongbuk Glacier () is located in the Himalaya of southern Tibet. Two large tributary glaciers, the East Rongbuk Glacier and the West Rongbuk Glacier, flow into the main Rongbuk Glacier. It flows north and forms the Rongbuk Valley north of Moun ...
at
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
in the
Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
, has also been used as a tephrochronological marker in
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
and
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
ice cores.
It has been proposed as a marker for the onset of the
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.
, neither the International Commissio ...
.
Local impact
![Arequipa Ascheregen Huaynaputina 1600 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Arequipa_Ascheregen_Huaynaputina_1600_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The eruption had a devastating impact on the region. Ash falls and pumice falls buried the surroundings beneath more than of rocks, while pyroclastic flows incinerated everything within their path, wiping out vegetation over a large area.
Of the volcanic phenomena, the ash and pumice falls were the most destructive. These and the debris and pyroclastic flows devastated an area of about around Huaynaputina, and both crops and livestock sustained severe damage.
Between 11 and 17 villages within from the volcano were buried by the ash, including Calicanto, Chimpapampa, Cojraque, Estagagache, Moro Moro and San Juan de Dios south and southwest of Huaynaputina. The Huayruro Project began in 2015 and aims to rediscover these towns,
and Calicanto was christened one of the 100
International Union of Geological Sciences heritage sites in 2021.
The death toll in villages from toxic gases and ash fall was severe; reportedly, some villages lost their entire populations to the eruption and a priest visiting Omate after the eruption claimed to have "found its inhabitants dead and cooked with the fire of the burning stones". Estagagache has been deemed the "
Pompeii of Peru".
The impact was noticeable in Arequipa, where up to of ash fell causing roofs to collapse under its weight.
Ash fall was reported in an area of across Peru, Chile and Bolivia, mostly west and south from the volcano, including in
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
,
Cuzco
Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...
,
Camaná
Camaná is the district capital of the homonymous province, located in the Department of Arequipa, Peru. In 2015, it had an estimate of 39,026 inhabitants.
It lies 180 km from Arequipa, on the Panamerican Highway
The Pan-American Hi ...
, where it was thick enough to cause palm trees to collapse,
Potosi,
Arica
Arica ( ; ) is a commune and a port city with a population of 222,619 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only south of the border with Peru. The city is the capita ...
as well as in Lima where it was accompanied by sounds of explosions. Ships observed ash fall from as far as west of the coast.
The surviving local population fled during the eruption and wild animals sought refuge in the city of Arequipa.
The site of Torata Alta, a former
Inka administrative centre, was destroyed during the Huaynaputina eruption and after a brief reoccupation abandoned in favour of
Torata.
Likewise, the occupation of the site of Pillistay close to Camana ended shortly after the eruption.
Together with earthquakes unrelated to the eruption and
El Niño
El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date L ...
-related flooding, the Huaynaputina eruption led to the abandonment of some
irrigated
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
land in Carrizal, Peru.
The eruption claimed 1,000–1,500 fatalities, not counting these from earthquakes or flooding on the Río Tambo. In Arequipa, houses and the
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...
collapsed during
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
after an earthquake on 27February,
concomitant with the beginning of the second stage of the eruption.
Tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
s were reported during the eruption as well.
Flooding ensued when volcanic dams in the Río Tambo broke, and debris and
lahars
A lahar (, from jv, ꦮ꧀ꦭꦲꦂ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley.
Lahars are extremel ...
reached the Pacific Ocean 120–130 km () away. Occasionally the flows that reached the Pacific Ocean have been described as pyroclastic flows.
Reportedly, fish were killed by the flood in the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the river.
Damage to infrastructure and economic resources of the southern then-
Viceroyalty of Peru
The Viceroyalty of Peru ( es, Virreinato del Perú, links=no) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from ...
was severe. The
colonial wine industry in southern Peru was wiped out; chroniclers tell how all wines were lost during the eruption and the tsunamis that accompanied it.
Before the eruption the Moquegua region had been a source of wine, and afterwards the focus of viticulture shifted to Pisco, Ica and Nazca;
later
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
became an important crop in Moquegua valley. Tephra fallout fertilized the soil and may have allowed increased agriculture in certain areas. Cattle
ranching also was severely impacted by the 1600 eruption. The Arequipa and Moquegua areas were depopulated by epidemics and famine; recovery only began towards the end of the 17th century. Indigenous people from the Quinistacas valley moved to Moquegua because the valley was covered with ash;
population movements resulting from the Huaynaputina eruption may have occurred as far away as Bolivia.
After the eruption, taxes were suspended for years, and indigenous workers were recruited from as far as
Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, ...
and Cuzco to aid in the reconstruction. Arequipa went from being a relatively wealthy city to be a place of famine and disease in the years after the eruption, and its port of Chule was abandoned. Despite the damage, recovery was fast in Arequipa. The population declined in the region, although some of the decline may be due to earthquakes and
epidemic
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics of infectious ...
s before 1600. New administrative surveys – called – had to be carried out in the
Colca Valley
A qullqa ( "deposit, storehouse"; (spelling variants: ''colca, collca, qolca, qollca'') was a storage building found along roads and near the cities and political centers of the Inca Empire. To a "prodigious xtentunprecedented in the annals of ...
in 1604 after population losses and the effects of the Huaynaputina eruption had reduced the ability of the local population to pay the
tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...
s.
Religious responses
Historians' writings about conditions in Arequipa tell of religious processions seeking to soothe the divine anger, people praying all day and those who had lost faith in the church resorting to
magic
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
spells as the eruption was underway, while in Moquegua children were reportedly running around, women screaming and numerous anecdotes of people who survived eruption or didn't exist. In the city of Arequipa church authorities organized a series of
procession
A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner.
History
Processions have in all peoples and at all times been a natural form of public celebration, as forming an orderly and impressive ceremony. Religious ...
s,
requiem masses and
exorcism
Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...
s in response to the eruption. In Copacabana and La Paz, there were religious processions, the churches opened their doors and people prayed. Some indigenous people organized their own rituals which included feasting on whatever food and drink they had and battering dogs that were hanged alive. The apparent effectiveness of the Christian rituals led many previously hesitant indigenous inhabitants to embrace Christianity and abandon their clandestine native religion.
News of the event was propagated throughout the
American colonies, and both Christians and native people of Peru interpreted the eruption in religious context. The
Spaniards
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance peoples, Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of National and regional identity in Spain, national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex Hist ...
interpreted the event as a divine punishment, while native people interpreted it as a deity fighting against the Spanish invaders; one myth states that Omate volcano (Huaynaputina) wanted the assistance of Arequipa volcano (probably El Misti) to destroy the Spaniards but the latter could not, claiming that he was Christian now, and so Huaynaputina proceeded alone. Another states that instead, Huaynaputina asked Machuputina (Misti) to deal with the Catholic Arequipa; when the latter refused as it too had become Catholic Huaynaputina exploded from anger. El Misti had erupted less than two centuries before, and local populations were further concerned that after Huaynaputina, El Misti might erupt next. As a result, natives and
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
friars threw sacrifices such as
relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
s of
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
s into its crater.
Shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...
s in the Tambo valley urged a return to old customs, and processions and sacrifices to Huaynaputina took place.
In Arequipa, a new
patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
, San Genaro, was named following the eruption and veneration of
Martha
Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness ...
– who was believed to have power over earthquakes – increased; she became the city's sole patron saint in 1693.
Reportedly, in November1599 a
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
named Alonzo Ruiz had announced in Arequipa that divine punishment would strike the natives for continuing to worship their gods and the Spaniards for promiscuity.
Mythology held that before the 1600 eruption the lack of sacrifices had upset the devil. It sent a large snake named or to announce "horrifying storms" which eventually ended up killing the natives.
Jesuits interpreted this as a deception attempt by the devil. Such prophecies may reflect prior knowledge about the volcanic nature of Huaynaputina. There are reports that a sacrificial offering was underway at the volcano a few days before the eruption.
Global atmospheric impacts of the 1600 eruption
After the eruption, anomalies in the appearance of the sun were described in Europe and China as a "dimming" or "reddening" "haze" that reduced the sun's luminosity in a cloudless sky and reduced the visibility of shadows. Vivid sunsets and sunrises were noted. A darkened
lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth ...
described by observers in
Graz
Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, in 1601 may have been the consequence of the Huaynaputina aerosols.
Acid layers in ice cores from Antarctica and
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
have been attributed to Huaynaputina, and their discovery led to initial discussion about whether the 1600 eruption had major effects on Earth's climate. In Antarctica these ice cores include both acid layers and volcanic tephra. The total amount of
sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
erupted by Huaynaputina has been estimated at several values:
Other estimates are 50–100 million tons for the
sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
yield and 23 or 26–55 million tons for the sulfur.
In Antarctica the sulfur yield was estimated to be about one-third that of the 1815 Tambora eruption, although the climate impact in the Northern Hemisphere might have been aggravated by the distribution of the aerosols;
at one Antarctic site the Huaynaputina sulfate layer is thicker than the one from Tambora. Inferences from rock composition usually yield a higher sulfur output than ice core data; this may reflect either ice cores underestimating the amount of sulfur erupted as ice cores only record
stratospheric sulfur, ice cores underestimating the amount of sulfur for other reasons or overestimating the amount of sulfur contained within magma-associated fluids. The Huaynaputina eruption was probably unusually rich in sulfur compared to its volume.
A large amount of sulfur appears to have been carried in a volatile phase associated with the magma rather than in the magma proper. An even larger amount of sulfur may have originated from a relic hydrothermal system that underpins the volcano, and whose accumulated sulfur would have been mobilized by the 1600 eruption; some contradictions between the sulfur yield inferred from ice core data and these inferred from the magma composition can be resolved this way.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is a trace gas that plays an integral part in the greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, photosynthesis and oceanic carbon cycle. It is one of several greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere that are contributin ...
concentrations in 1610 decreased for reasons unknown; high mortality in the Americas after the European arrival may be the reason, but this decrease could have been at least in part the consequence of the Huaynaputina eruption.
The vast tephra fallout of the eruption fell in part over the sea; the fertilizing effect of the tephra may have induced a draw-down of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Climate impacts
Volcanic eruptions alter worldwide climate by injecting ash and gases into the atmosphere, which reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth, often causing cold weather and crop failures. The Huaynaputina eruption decreased the amount on solar energy reaching Earth by about The summer of 1601 was among the coldest in the Northern Hemisphere during the last six centuries, and the impact may have been comparable to that of the
1815 Tambora,
1452/1453 mystery eruption,
1257 Samalas and 536
Ilopango
Ilopango is a town in the San Salvador department of El Salvador. It is a few miles east of the nation's capital, San Salvador. It is located near Lake Ilopango, the country's largest lake at 72 square kilometers.
Overview
El Salvador's se ...
eruptions. The eruption is thought to have caused a
volcanic winter
A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, particularly explosiv ...
.
Other volcanoes may have erupted alongside Huaynaputina and also contributed to the weather anomalies;
several large volcanic eruptions took place in the decades preceding and following the Huaynaputina eruption.
The eruption had a noticeable impact on growth conditions in the Northern Hemisphere, which were the worst of the last 600 years, with summers being on average colder than the mean. The climate impact has been noted in the growth rings of a centuries-old
ocean quahog
The ocean quahog (''Arctica islandica'') is a species of edible clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Arcticidae. This species is native to the North Atlantic Ocean, and it is harvested commercially as a food source. This species is ...
(a
mollusc) individual that was found in Iceland,
as well as in tree rings from Taiwan,
eastern
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
,
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
,
the
Urals
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
and
Yamal Peninsula
The Yamal Peninsula (russian: полуостров Ямал, poluostrov Yamal) is located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of northwest Siberia, Russia. It extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by the Kara ...
in Russia, Canada, the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
and
White Mountains both in California and
Lake Zaysan
Lake Zaysan (, ''Zaısan kóli'', زايسان كؤلئ, ; , ''Zaisan nuur'', en: ''Noble lake''; , ''Ozero Zajsan''; , Xiao'erjing: جَىْصْا پْ; dng, Җэсонпә) is a freshwater lake, ca. 1,810 km² (700 mi²), in eastern Ka ...
in Kazakhstan.
Notably, the climate impacts became manifest only in 1601; in the preceding year, they may have been suppressed by a strong El Niño event.
Other climate effects attributed to the Huaynaputina eruption include:
*In climate simulations, after the 1600 eruption a strengthening of the
Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is part of a global thermohaline circulation in the oceans and is the zonally integrated component of surface and deep currents in the Atlantic Ocean. It is characterized by a northward fl ...
is observed along with sea ice growth, followed after a delay by a phase of decreased strength.
*An extraordinarily strong El Niño event in 1607–1608 and a concomitant northward shift of the Southern Hemisphere
storm track
''Storm Track'' was the first magazine for and about storm chasing. The magazine was in circulation between 1977 and 2002.
History and profile
''Storm Track'' was started in 1977 by chasing pioneer David Hoadley following an informal meeting o ...
s have been attributed to the Huaynaputina eruption.
*Intense winds were reported from the present-day
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
Manila galleon
fil, Galyon ng Maynila
, english_name = Manila Galleon
, duration = From 1565 to 1815 (250 years)
, venue = Between Manila and Acapulco
, location = New Spain (Spanish Empire ...
s reportedly were faster when crossing the Pacific Ocean after 1600, perhaps owing to volcanically-induced wind changes.
* A change in the
Atlantic Multidecadal Variability around 1600 has been attributed to the Huaynaputina eruption.
Long-term climate effects
Temperatures decreased for a long time after the Huaynaputina eruption in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere.
Together with the 1257 Samalas eruption and the
1452/1453 mystery eruption, the Huaynaputina eruption may have led to the
Little Ice Age,
or to the coldest period of the Little Ice Age in Europe
during the "Grindelwald Fluctuation" between 1560-1630.
Glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
growth,
Arctic sea ice
The Arctic ice pack is the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum around mid-September, then increases during fall ...
expansion and climatic cooling has been noted after these eruptions, and a cooling peak occurred around the time of the Huaynaputina eruption.
In general, volcanic sulfate aerosol production was higher during the Little Ice Age than before or after it. In the Andes, the Little Ice Age had already begun before the 1600 eruption, although a major expansion of glaciers in the Peruvian
Cordillera Blanca
The Cordillera Blanca (Spanish for "white range") is a mountain range in Peru that is part of the larger Andes range and extends for between 8°08' and 9°58'S and 77°00' and 77°52'W, in a northwesterly direction. It includes several peaks ove ...
occurred at the time.
The 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina occurred at the tail end of a cluster of mid-sized volcanic eruptions, which in a climate simulation had a noticeable impact on Earth's energy balance and were accompanied by a 10% growth of Northern Hemisphere sea ice and a weakening of the
subpolar gyre
In oceanography, a gyre () is any large system of circulating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determin ...
which may have begun already before the eruption. Such a change in the ocean currents has been described as being characteristic for the Little Ice Age and mediates numerous effects of the Little Ice Age, such as colder winters.
Distant consequences
North America
![1639 Jamestown Church (2883847775)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/1639_Jamestown_Church_%282883847775%29.jpg)
Thin tree rings and
frost ring
Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...
s potentially correlated to the Huaynaputina eruption have been found in trees of what today are the
Northeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
and
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
such as in
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
.
Tree rings dating to 1601 and 1603 found close to the
tree line
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...
in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
indicate cold temperatures, and anomalous tree rings and cooling in
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
have been linked to the eruption as well.
In 1601, the coldest temperature of the last 600 years was recorded in
Seward Peninsula
The Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska whose westernmost point is Cape Prince of Wales. The peninsula projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi ...
,
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
,
as well as in other places of northwestern and southeastern Alaska.
Noticeable cooling has been inferred for the Western US from tree ring data.
Weather in the
Arctic Archipelago of Canada was unusually wet.
The Huaynaputina eruption was followed by a
drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
in what today are the
Eastern US and may have hindered the establishment of the colony in
Jamestown, Virginia
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James (Powhatan) River about southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was ...
, where mortality from malnutrition was high.
The eruption may also have contributed to the disappearance of the
Monongahela culture
The Monongahela culture were an Iroquoian Native American cultural manifestation of Late Woodland peoples from AD 1050 to 1635 in present-day western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia. The culture was named by Mar ...
from North America, along with other climate phenomena linked to the
El Niño–Southern Oscillation
El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an irregular periodic variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics. The warming phase of the sea te ...
.
=California
=
A major flooding episode in 1605 ± 5 recorded from sediments of the
Santa Barbara Basin has been attributed to the Huaynaputina eruption. A global cooling period associated with the Huaynaputina eruption as well as eruptions of
Mount Etna and
Quilotoa may have forced storm tracks and the
jet stream
Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow, meandering thermal wind, air currents in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. On Earth, the main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are west ...
south, causing floods in the Southwestern United States. At that time, flooding also took place in
Silver Lake
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
in the
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
, and
Mono Lake
Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water alk ...
rose to the highest level of the past millennium. There were also wet spells between 1599 and 1606 in the
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento ...
system, according to analysis of tree rings. Colder temperatures may have contributed to the flooding in Silver Lake, as they would have reduced
evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. High concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evaporation, such as when humidi ...
.
![California island Vinckeboons5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/California_island_Vinckeboons5.jpg)
The Spanish explorers
Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Asia.
Early career
Vizcaíno was born in 154 ...
and
Juan de Oñate
Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great ...
visited the US west coast and the
Colorado River Delta
The Colorado River Delta is the region where the Colorado River flows into the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) in eastern Mexicali Municipality in the north of the state of Baja California in northwesternmost Mexico. The ...
in the years following the Huaynaputina eruption. The effects of this eruption and the activity of other volcanoes – namely, large scale flooding – might have induced them to believe that
California was an island; this later became one of the most well known
cartographic
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
misconceptions of history.
Western Europe
Tree rings indicate unusually cold weather in the
Austrian Alps
The Central Eastern Alps (german: Zentralalpen or Zentrale Ostalpen), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps (german: Österreichische Zentralalpen) or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacent ...
and Estonia, where the 1601–1602 winter became coldest in half a millennium. The summers in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
and
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
after the eruption were the coldest of the past 420 years. Tree ring analysis suggested cooling in Greece,
Lapland (Finland),
the Pyrenees and central Spain, the Swiss Alps and Switzerland (in 1600) more generally,
where reconstructed winter temperatures were the lowest of 1525–1860. Anomalous weather conditions relating to the 1600 eruption, possibly under additional influence from reduced solar activity, have been noted in sediment cores from peat bogs in England and Denmark.
In Norway, cooling coinciding with the eruption was probably the reason for the development of palsas in Færdesmyra that for the most part disappeared only in the 20th century.
Sea ice expanded around Iceland.
The winter of 1601 was extremely cold in Estonia, Ireland,
Latvia and Switzerland, and the ice in the harbour of Riga broke up late. Climate impacts were also reported from Croatia.
The 1601 wine harvest was delayed in France, and in Germany it was drastically lower in 1602. Frost continued into summer in Italy and England. A further cold winter occurred in 1602–1603 in Ireland.
In Estonia, high mortality and crop failures from 1601 to 1603 led to an at least temporary abandonment of three quarters of all farms. Scotland saw the failure of barley and oat crops in 1602 and a Plague (disease), plague outbreak during the preceding year, and in Italy silk prices rose due to a decline in silk production in the peninsula.
In Fennoscandia, the summer of 1601 was one of the coldest in the last four centuries. In Sweden, harvest failures are recorded between 1601 and 1603,
with a rainy spring in 1601 reportedly leading to famine. Famine ensued there and in Denmark and Norway during 1602–1603. Finland saw one of the worst barley and rye harvests, and crop yields continued to be poor for some years to follow, accompanied by a colder climate there.
The year 1601 was called a "green year" in Sweden and a "straw year" or "year of extensive frosts" in Finland,
and it is likely that the 1601 crop failure was among the worst in Finland's history. The Huaynaputina eruption together with other factors led to changes in the social structure of Ostrobothnia (historical province), Ostrobothnia, where a number of land holdings were deserted after the eruption and peasants with wider social networks had higher chances to cope with crises than these without.
Russia
![Golod](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Golod.jpg)
Ice cores in the Russian Altai Mountains noted a strong cooling around 1601,
with tree ring data also recording a cooling of . Cooling was also noted in tree rings of the Kola Peninsula
and ice cores on Novaya Zemlya, where glacier melting rates declined.
The summer 1601 was wet, and the winter 1601–1602 was severe. The eruption led to the Russian famine of 1601–1603 after crops failed during these years; it is considered to be the worst famine of Russian history and claimed about two million lives, a third of the country's population. The events initiated the time of social unrest known as the Time of Troubles,
and the tzar Boris Godunov was overthrown in part owing to the social impacts of the famine. This social unrest eventually led to a change in the ruling dynasty and interventions from Sweden and Poland.
Balkans and Ottoman Empire
Before the Huaynaputina eruption, severe droughts in Anatolia during 1591–1596 caused harvest failures.
Intense snowfall and cold affected the countries of the Balkans and the Aegean Sea during the winters after the Huaynaputina eruption, forcing countries to acquire grain from abroad. The Ottoman-Bosnian chronicler İbrahim Peçevi reported that in 1601 the Danube froze and travel was hindered by snow.
The extremely cold winters that followed, associated with Huaynaputina's eruption and an eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in 1595, caused epizootics that killed large numbers of livestock in Anatolia, Crimea and the Balkans. This weakened the Ottoman Empire just as it was conducting the Long Turkish War and appears to have contributed to the onset of the Celali rebellions in Anatolia.
China
Chronicles during the reign of Emperor Wanli from northern China mention severe frosts in 1601 and frequently cold weather, including snowfall in Huai'an County and Hebei and severe frost in Gansu, Shanxi and Hebei during summer. The frosts destroyed crops, causing famines severe enough that cannibalism took place. Epidemics in Shanxi and Shaanxi have also been linked to Huaynaputina. The cold snap was apparently limited to 1601, as there are no reports of extremely cold weather in the subsequent years.
Weather was anomalous in southern China as well, 1601 seeing a hot autumn and a cold summer and abrupt snowfall. Disease outbreaks occurred afterwards. Reports of snowfall and unusual cold also came from the Yangtze River valley,
and summer in the Anhui, Shanghai and Zhejiang provinces began unusually with cold and snowy weather and then became hot.
Asia outside of China
Unusually narrow or entirely missing tree rings formed in 1601 in trees close to Khövsgöl Nuur lake,
and tree ring records show decreased temperatures in Taiwan.
Severe droughts recorded over the Tibetan Plateau in 1602 may have been caused by the Huaynaputina eruption. The eruption would have decreased the atmospheric water content and thus the strength of the monsoonal moisture transport towards the plateau.
Likewise, droughts recorded in stalagmite, cave deposits of southern Thailand have been related to the Huaynaputina eruption and may reflect a typical response of tropical rainfall to volcanic events.
In Japan, Lake Suwa froze up considerably earlier than normal in 1601, and flooding and continuous rains were accompanied by harvest failures. Korea in 1601 saw an unusually cold spring and summer, followed by a humid and hot mid-summer. Epidemics ensued, although the epidemics in East Asia erupted under different weather conditions and linking them to the Huaynaputina eruption may not be straightforward. On the other hand, temperatures were not unusually cold in Nepal.
Hazards and volcanological research
About 30,000 people live in the immediate area of Huaynaputina today, and over 69,000 and 1,000,000 live in the nearby cities of Moquegua and Arequipa, respectively.
The towns of Calacoa, Omate, Puquina and Quinistaquillas and others would be threatened in case of renewed eruptions.
A repeat of the 1600 eruption would likely cause a considerably greater death toll owing to population growth since 1600, as well as causing substantial socioeconomic disruption in the Andes.
Evacuation of the area directly around the volcano would be difficult owing to the poor state of the roads, and the tephra fallout would impact much of Peru's economy. The 1600 eruption is often used as a worst-case scenario model for eruptions at Peruvian volcanoes.
Huaynaputina is classified as a "high-risk volcano".
In 2017, the Peruvian Geophysical Institute announced that Huaynaputina would be monitored by the future Southern Volcanological Observatory, and in 2019 seismic monitoring of the volcano began.
, there are three seismometers and one device measuring volcano deformation on Huaynaputina.
During the wet season,
mudflow
A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/second. Mudflows contain a significa ...
s often descend from Huaynaputina. In 2010, earthquake activity and noises from the volcano alerted the local population and led to a volcanological investigation. As part of this investigation,
seismic
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
activity was recorded around the amphitheatre; there were no earthquakes within it and appeared to be associated mainly with the faults and lineaments in the region. The researchers recommended more extensive seismometer coverage of the area and regular sampling of fumaroles, as well as reconnaissance with georadar and of the Spontaneous potential, electrical potential of the volcano.
Climate and vegetation
Between in elevation average temperatures are about with cold nights, while at Omate, mean temperatures reach with little seasonal variation. Precipitation averages , falling mainly during a summer wet season between December and March. This results in an arid climate, where little erosion occurs and volcanic products are well preserved. Vegetation in the area of Huaynaputina is scarce; only during the wet season do plants grow on the pumice deposits from the 1600 eruption. Cacti can be found on rocky outcrops and valley bottoms.
See also
*Corral de Coquena
*Timeline of volcanism on Earth
Notes
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