The Sierra Chichinautzin

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 ...

, also known as ''El Pedegral'', is located in the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt ( es, Eje Volcánico Transversal), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks h ...

, approximately from where the

Cocos Plate The Cocos Plate is a young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides upon it. The Cocos Plate was created approximately 23 million years ago when the Farallon Plate ...

subducts beneath the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...

.Heterogeneous magmas of the Quaternary Sierra Chichinautzin Volcanic Field (central Mexico): the role of an amphibole-bearing mantle and magmatic evolution processes
Magmas heterogéneos del campo volcánico Cuaternario de la Sierra de Chichinautzin (México central): el papel de un manto con anfíbol y los procesos de evolución magmática.

Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas The ''Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas'' is a triannual peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, Instituto Nacional de Geoquímica, and Socieda ...

, 2008, volumen 25, número 2: 197-216. Retrieved 2011-09-05

Description

According to The

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Global Volcanism Program The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) documents Earth's volcanoes and their eruptive history over the past 10,000 years. The mission of the GVP is to document, understand, and disseminate information about global volcanic a ...

, "The massive Chichinautzin volcanic field covers a long, East-West trending area immediately south of central

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

." It is located within the

, and is less than 40 km directly south of Mexico City. The Sierra Chichinautzin, formed primarily of overlapping small

cinder cone A cinder cone (or scoria cone) is a steep conical hill of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic clinkers, volcanic ash, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are formed by explosive eruptions o ...

s and

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a warrior's shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more v ...

es, creates a broad topographic barrier at the southern end of the

Basin of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico wa ...

that extends from the eastern flank of

Nevado de Toluca Nevado de Toluca () is a stratovolcano in central Mexico, located about west of Mexico City near the city of Toluca. It is the fourth highest of Mexico's peaks, after Pico de Orizaba, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. The volcano and the area ar ...

to the western flank of

Iztaccihuatl Iztaccíhuatl (alternative spellings include Ixtaccíhuatl, or either variant spelled without the accent) ( or, as spelled with the x, ), is a dormant volcanic mountain in Mexico located on the border between the State of Mexico and Puebla wit ...

volcano. The volcanic field contains more than 220

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 ...

monogenetic vents. The best-known eruption occurred about 1670 radiocarbon years ago from the

Xitle Xitle ( Nahuatl, "navel") is a monogenetic volcano in the Ajusco range in Cumbres del Ajusco National Park. It is located in the Tlalpan borough in the southwestern part of Mexico City. It is an ash cone volcano with a conical form, round base, a ...

scoria cone, NE of the Volcán

Ajusco Ajusco is a lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City, Mexico, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. It is the highest point in the city. Etymology Ajusco is a Náhuatl word variously translated as "source of waters" or "watered grove", ...

lava-dome complex, which at forms the highest peak of the Sierra Chichinautzin. The Xitle eruption produced a massive basaltic tube-fed lava flow that covered agricultural lands as well as pyramids and other structures of

Cuicuilco Cuicuilco is an important archaeological site located on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco in the southeastern Valley of Mexico, in what is today the borough of Tlalpan in Mexico City. Some historians believe this settlement goes back to 1400 B ...

and adjacent prehispanic urban centers. The southern part of Mexico City and the

National University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

, in the greater ''El Pedegral'' district, lie atop the distal end of the long lava flow.

References

External links

{{coord missing, Mexico City Mountain ranges of Mexico Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Landforms of Mexico City Landforms of the State of Mexico Milpa Alta Volcanic fields Volcanoes of Mexico City Volcanoes of the State of Mexico

Description

See also

References

External links