Tupungato, one of the highest mountains in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, is a massive Andean

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 ...

dating to Pleistocene times. It lies on the border between the Chilean Metropolitan Region (near a major international highway about east of Santiago) and the

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

province of Mendoza, about south of Aconcagua, the highest peak of both the

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

and Western hemispheres. Immediately to its southwest is the active Tupungatito volcano (literally, ''little Tupungato''), which last erupted in 1987. Tupungato Department, an important

Argentine wine Argentina is the fifth largest producer of wine in the world.H. Johnson & J. Robinson ''The World Atlas of Wine'' pg 300-301 Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 Argentine wine, as with some aspects of Argentine cuisine, has its roots in Spain. D ...

-producing region in Mendoza province, is named for the volcano. Recent Chilean mapping indicates it has a height of 6635m.

1947 plane crash

On 2 August 1947, the airliner ''

Star Dust Stardust may refer to: * A type of cosmic dust, composed of particles in space Entertainment Songs * “Stardust” (1927 song), by Hoagy Carmichael * “Stardust” (David Essex song), 1974 * “Stardust” (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), 2012 * ...

'', an Avro Lancastrian carrying six passengers and five crew over the Andes range, crashed into a steep glacier high on the Argentine side of Tupungato. The plane was quickly buried in the resulting avalanche and heavy

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

that was taking place at the time. The plane lay undetected deep beneath the snow and glacial ice for over 50 years. Its remnants finally re-emerged at the glacier terminus in 2000. Shortly thereafter, an Argentine army expedition discovered the scattered debris and wreckage, collecting some of the evidence for investigation. Tupungato tupungatito volcanoes areal chile argentina

Tupungato tupungatito volcanoes areal chile argentina

Tupungato volcano seen from punta de vacas argentina

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links