Laguna Colorada is an ignimbrite shield of the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex at an altitude of in the

Potosi Department Potosí or Potosi may refer to: Places United States * Potosi, Missouri, in Washington County * Potosi, Nevada, a ghost town in Clark County, Nevada * Potosi, Texas, in Taylor County * Potosi (town), Wisconsin, in Grant County ** Potosi, ...

of Bolivia. Laguna Colorada is a wide ignimbrite shield that was formerly also known as Panizos (not to be confused with

Cerro Panizos Panizos is a Late Miocene caldera in the Potosí Department of Bolivia and the Jujuy Province of Argentina. It is part of the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex of the Central Volcanic Zone in the Andes. 50 volcanoes active in recent times are found ...

. The shield is not clearly associated with a caldera but appears to contain a sag structure. The ignimbrite field is bordered by the

Laguna Colorada __NOTOC__ Laguna Colorada (''Red Lagoon'') is a shallow salt lake in the southwest of the altiplano of Bolivia, within Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve and close to the border with Chile. Contents The lake contains borax islands, ...

to the west, Cerro Torque in the north and Quetena to the east; Laguna Colorada is also the origin of the name of the shield. Likewise, the "Tatio

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 ...

" at El Tatio originates from eruptions at Laguna Colorada; the 700,000 years old Tatio ignimbrite however is considered to be separate. An older ignimbrite was erupted 2.21±0.05 million years ago. An ignimbrite is associated with Laguna Colorada. This ignimbrite was erupted 1.98 million years ago and has a volume of

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 ...

, covering a surface of about . Several fall deposits occur both within and below the ignimbrite. This ignimbrite is also known as the Tatio ignimbrite and given a volume of dense rock equivalent, or the Aguadita

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

s. The ignimbrite is one of the youngest in the region and keeps a noticeable texture in high altitude images. Deposits perhaps correlated to this ignimbrite have been recovered in the

Quebrada de Humahuaca The Quebrada de Humahuaca is a narrow mountain valley located in the province of Jujuy in northwest Argentina, north of Buenos Aires (). It is about long, oriented north–south, bordered by the Altiplano in the west and north, by the Sub-Andean ...

region. The active geothermal fields of El Tatio and Sol de Manana are located around the Laguna Colorada system. , a pilot geothermal power project was underway at Laguna Colorada. An electrical conductivity anomaly beneath Laguna Colorada has been interpreted either as new

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 ...

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 material. Recent satellite imagery has shown that Laguna Colorada is subsiding at a rate of , with the subsidence encompassing the area of the Laguna Colorada ignimbrite and covering a diameter of .

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