Solimana is a

volcanic 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 a ...

massif in 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, that is approximately high. It is considered an extinct

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 ...

that is part of the Central Volcanic Zone, one of the volcanic belts of the Andes. It features a caldera as well as traces of a sector collapse and subsequent erosion. The volcano is glaciated.

Geomorphology and geography

Regional

It is situated in the

Arequipa Region Arequipa ( ay, Ariqipa; qu, Ariqipa) is a department and region in southwestern Peru. It is the sixth largest department in Peru, after Puno, Cuzco, Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto, its sixth most populous department, and its eleventh least ...

, Condesuyos Province, in the districts of Chichas and Salamanca, and in the La Unión Province, in the districts of

Cotahuasi Cotahuasi is a town in 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 = National seal , nat ...

and Toro. Several towns lie around the volcano. Solimana is part of the Peruvian segment of the

Central 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 Americ ...

of the Andes. The Central Volcanic Zone in this segment has both generated large composite volcanoes which rise above their basement and monogenetic volcanoes and

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 ...

s. This zone of volcanoes includes, from northwest to southeast, Sara Sara, Solimana,

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 ...

Andagua volcanic field The Andagua volcanic field (also known as Andahua) is a volcanic field in southern Peru which includes a number of cinder cones, lava domes and lava flows which have filled the Andagua Valley (which is also known as Valley of the Volcanoes for t ...

Huambo volcanic field Huambo volcanic field is a volcanic field in Peru. Andahua-Orcopampa lies north-northeast and Sabancaya east of Huambo, east of the Rio Colca. The town of Huambo lies between the two fields. The northern part of the field was active 700 BCE ± ...

Ampato Ampato (possibly from Quechua ''hamp'atu'' or from Aymara ''jamp'atu'', both meaning "frog") is a dormant stratovolcano in the Andes of southern Peru. It lies about northwest of Arequipa and is part of a north-south chain that includes the volc ...

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 ...

, Cerro Nicholson, Chachani,

Misti Misti, also known as Putina or Guagua Putina, is a stratovolcano of andesite, dacite, and rhyolite located in southern Peru near the city of Arequipa. With its seasonally snow-capped, symmetrical cone, Misti stands at above sea level and lies betw ...

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, wh ...

, Huaynaputina,

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 ...

, and

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 dom ...

, some of which have been active during historical time.

Local

Solimana rises above an approximately high basement. It has a

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 ...

, which gives it an asymmetric appearance; further on the south flank both the basement and inner parts of the edifice crop out. This asymmetry was caused by large sector collapses and subsequent erosion of the southern flank. The main edifice is formed by a

compound volcano A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano or a volcanic complex, is a mixed landform consisting of related volcanic centers and their associated lava flows and pyroclastic rock. They may form due to changes in eruptive habit or in t ...

accompanied by

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...

s and

lava flows Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

as well as

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 bu ...

s and

lahar 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 extreme ...

s, the latter relating to the formation of the collapse structure. Solimana has a high relief reaching approximately , the consequence of glacial erosion. Neighbouring

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

s have begun to incise the edifice. The

Cotahuasi Canyon Cotahuasi Canyon (from Quechua Kutawasi), near the city of Arequipa in Peru, is one of the deepest canyons in the world. With a depth of approximately , as defined as the difference in elevation at river level and the peak of a mountain alongsid ...

runs north of Solimana, and the southern flank is drained by numerous ''quebradas''. During the

last glacial maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

a number 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 developed on Solimana, the longest of which occupied the Quebrada Caño on the northern flank and reached length. There have been approximately five episodes of glaciation on Solimana in total. Later glaciations after the Last Glacial maximum emplaced conspicuous moraines, which are well preserved by the arid climate. Presently, glaciers are restricted to a valley on the northern slope and the steep southeastern flank; a report in 1992 indicated the presence of an ice cap covering a surface of . In addition,

rock glacier Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms, consisting either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in-between. Rock glaciers are normally found at high ...

s are present on Solimana.

Geology

The

Nazca Plate The Nazca Plate or Nasca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the Peru–Chile Trench, of the Na ...

subducts 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 ...

beneath the South America Plate at a rate of ; it has slowed since the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

. This subduction process is responsible for the formation of the Andes mountains in the region. Together with Sara Sara and Coropuna, Solimana is located on the northwestern end of the

; no volcanism occurs farther north where the Nazca Plate subducts at a shallower angle than beneath the Central Volcanic Zone. Of these volcanoes, Solimana is considered to be the oldest and Coropuna the youngest. Solimana together with

and Coropuna form the Cordillera Ampato. The

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

dates back to the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

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 ' ...

and is buried beneath several pre-

formations. The Tacaza formation forms a Miocene-Oligocene layer of volcanic and sedimentary rocks that are overlain by

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 ...

volcanoes, which include the Barroso Group formation and the Pliocene Sencca formation.

Composition

Samples taken from Solimana are

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 ...

and

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. ...

, but more recently

basaltic andesite Basaltic andesite is a volcanic rock that is intermediate in composition between basalt and andesite. It is composed predominantly of augite and plagioclase. Basaltic andesite can be found in volcanoes around the world, including in Central Ameri ...

was erupted as well. The rocks contain hornblende, hypersthene, 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 prope ...

, with additional

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickl ...

in the phreatomagmatic deposits. The geochemistry of volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone typically displays strong evidence of crustal contamination, which is attributed to the thick crust that has developed in this region. A granulitic basement may be a plausible origin of this contamination, with additional contribution of subducted

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 acting on the particles. For example, sand a ...

Vegetation

Llareta __NOTOC__ Yareta or llareta (''Azorella compacta'', known historically as ''Azorella yareta'', from ''yarita'' in the Quechua language) is a velvety, chartreuse cushion plant in the family Apiaceae which is native to South America. It grows in th ...

and ichu grass form the thin vegetation up to about altitude.

Archeology

The

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

considered Solimana and

to be sacred mountains. In 2008, an Inca archeological site was discovered on Solimana's eastern flank, in the locality of Minticocha. The site most likely served religious and ceremonial purposes. According to colonial period sources, Solimana is the site of a major oracle, but this oracle is more likely to be located at Muyu Muyu close to the town of Yanque than at Minticocha.

Eruption history

Solimana is an extinct volcano. It was active during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

and

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 with the last eruption occurring between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. The collapses occurred at some time between 3.05 and 1.5 million years ago and after the collapse volcanism became centered inside the collapse scar and its margins, with the youngest activity forming

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 ...

deposits within the caldera and a

scoria cone Scoria is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock that was ejected from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains or clasts.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) ''G ...

on its south. Solimana may be the source of the Lomas

deposit and the Upper Sencca ignimbrite. The Upper Sencca ignimbrite was erupted between 1.76 and 2.09 million years ago and filled several valleys with of material, while the Lomas deposit was erupted between 1.56 and 1.26 million years ago. Solimana still features

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 volcani ...

activity within the caldera and the Peruvian geophysical institute has installed a

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a connection. ...

control point on the volcano. It is considered a moderately dangerous volcano.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sulimana Stratovolcanoes of Peru Mountains of Arequipa Region Andean Volcanic Belt Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Six-thousanders of the Andes Mountains of Peru