Volcán de Agua (also known as Hunahpú by Maya) is a
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 ...
located in the departments of
Sacatepéquez
Sacatepéquez () was a city in Guatemala from November 21, 1542 until July 29, 1773 when it was destroyed by the Santa Marta earthquake. Sacatepéquez means ''grasshill'' and gave its name to the Sacatepéquez Department.
Sacatepéquez and Antigu ...
and
Escuintla
Escuintla () is an industrial city in Guatemala, its land extension is 4384 km², and it is nationally known for its sugar agribusiness. Its capital is a minicipality with the same name. Citizens celebrate from December 6 to 9 with a small fair ...
in
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
. At , Agua
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 ...
towers more than above the
Pacific
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 ...
coastal plain to the south and above the
Guatemalan Highlands
The Guatemalan Highlands is an upland region in southern Guatemala, lying between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north.
Description
The highlands are made up of a series of high valleys enclosed by mou ...
to the north. It dominates the local landscape except when hidden by cloud cover. The volcano is within of the city of
Antigua Guatemala
Antigua Guatemala (), commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque-influenced architec ...
and several other large towns situated on its northern apron. These towns have a combined population of nearly 100,000. It is within about of
Escuintla
Escuintla () is an industrial city in Guatemala, its land extension is 4384 km², and it is nationally known for its sugar agribusiness. Its capital is a minicipality with the same name. Citizens celebrate from December 6 to 9 with a small fair ...
(population, ) to the south.
[S.P. Schilling, J.W. Vallance, O. Matías, and M.M. Howell, 2001, Lahar Hazards at Agua Volcano, Guatemala: USGS Open-File Report 01-432]
/ref> Coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
is grown on the volcano's lower slopes.
Brief description and history
The local Kaqchikel people
The Kaqchikel (also called Kachiquel) are one of the indigenous Maya peoples of the midwestern highlands in Guatemala. They constitute Guatemala's third largest Maya group. The name was formerly spelled in various other ways, including Cakchique ...
have always called the volcano Hunapú "place of flowers" or Jun Ajpu' "one hunter" (The calendar date for the sacred site; a typical method for naming sacred sites in Mayan cosmovision) in current Kaqchikel orthography. The Spanish conquistadors also called it Hunapú until a 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 ...
from the volcano on September 10, 1541 destroyed the original capital of Guatemala (now known as Ciudad Vieja) and the city was moved to the current site of Antigua Guatemala
Antigua Guatemala (), commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque-influenced architec ...
following this disaster. Among the casualties was the governor Beatriz de la Cueva. As the lahar produced a destructive flood of water, this prompted the modern name "Volcán de Agua" meaning "Volcano of Water", in contrast to the nearby "Volcán de Fuego
Volcán de Fuego (; Spanish for "Volcano of Fire", often shortened to Fuego) or Chi Q'aq' ( Kaqchikel for "where the fire is") is an active stratovolcano in Guatemala, on the borders of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepéquez departments. ...
" or "Volcano of Fire". The Kaqchikels call Volcan de Fuego ''Chi Gag'', which translates to "where the fire is" or Chi Q'aq' in current Kaqchikel orthography.
The volcano was active in the late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...
between 80,000 and 10,000 years ago, but has not erupted since then. Despite the lack of eruptive activity, the volcano can still produce debris flow
Debris flows are geological phenomena in which water-laden masses of soil and fragmented rock rush down mountainsides, funnel into stream channels, entrain objects in their paths, and form thick, muddy deposits on valley floors. They generally ...
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 that inundate nearby populated areas.[ This was proven by the fact that on 11 September 1541, newly founded villa of ]Santiago de los Caballeros
Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...
was ruined by a "formidable landslide that came down Volcán de Agua; the mudslide brought along heavy rocks that destroyed part of the buildings and damaged the rest". The city was destroyed and the survivors had no direction, since governor Beatriz de la Cueva died during the disaster, which took place shortly after her husband, Adelantado Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado (; c. 1485 – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala.Lovell, Lutz and Swezey 1984, p. 461. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatá ...
, died and she was appointed governor by the Ayuntamiento (English:City Hall). Beatriz de la Cueva had been beside herself with grief and on 9 September 1541, when she had signed the Cabildo documents, she did so as "la sin ventura" (English: the hapless one), a phrase that turned out to be prophetic. In the aftermath Beatriz de la Cueva was blamed for the disaster as it was considered to be a godly punishment for her sins. Additionally her fate became a cautionary tale about giving women positions in government particularly when many qualified men were available.
In 1895 Anne Cary Maudslay and her husband, archeologist Alfred Percival Maudslay
Alfred Percival Maudslay FRAI (18 March 1850 – 22 January 1931) was a British diplomat, explorer, and archaeologist. He was one of the first Europeans to study Maya ruins. He also fully translated and annotated the best version of Bernal ...
visited the Antigua Guatemala region as part of a journey through Guatemala's Maya and colonial archeological monuments, and climbed the Volcán de Agua; she wrote a book called ''A Glimpse at Guatemala'' where she explains that water from the volcano crater could not have destroyed the old Santiago: The cause of this catastrophe is usually said to have been the bursting of the side of a lake which had been formed in the crater of the extinct Volcán de Agua; but an examination of the crater shows this explanation to be improbable, as the break in the crater-wall is in an opposite direction, and no water flowing from it could have reached the town. Moreover, there is no evidence to show that the deeper portion of the crater, which is still intact, has held water since the reported outbreak. Indeed, an accumulation of water during the exceptionally heavy rain, through some temporary obstruction in one of the deep worn gullies which indent the beautiful slope of that great mountain, and a subsequent landslip would probably account for the damage done without the aid of either an eruption of water from the crater or the supernatural appearances which are duly noted by the old chroniclers.
The volcano was last blanketed by snowfall in January 1967.
The Volcán de Agua has been declared a protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
in 1956 and covers an area of .
On 21 January 2012, 12,000 Guatemalans formed a human chain all the way to the peak Volcan de Agua in a protest against domestic violence.
Gallery
File:Antigua Giron1.JPG, Agua from near Antigua Guatemala
Antigua Guatemala (), commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque-influenced architec ...
's Central Park.
Image:VolcanAguaChimaltenango.jpg, Agua as seen from the road from to Antigua
Image:Volcan agua from tecpan guatemala.JPG, Volcan de Agua as seen from Tecpan, Guatemala ( away)
File:Aguitaenlamananita 2008 252e.jpg, Volcan de Agua exhibits the steep cone shape typical of stratovolcanoes; as seen from Acatenango's Pico Mayor.
File:Volcanoes near to Guatemala City.jpg, Agua from Guatemala City
Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...
.
See also
*
* List of volcanoes in Guatemala
This is a list of active, dormant, and extinct volcanoes in Guatemala.
Volcanoes
See also
* Central America Volcanic Arc
* List of volcanoes in El Salvador
* List of volcanoes in Honduras
* List of volcanoes in Mexico
Footnotes
...
* Mountain peaks of North America
This article comprises three sortable tables of Summit, major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a major summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence ...
* List of stratovolcanoes
A list of stratovolcanoes follows below.
Africa
Cameroon
* Mount Cameroon
Democratic Republic of Congo
* Mount Nyiragongo, Goma; designated as a Decade Volcano
** It contains an active lava lake inside its crater which overflowed due t ...
Notes and references
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Ideal Pictures Corp. Menace of Guatemala (Ideal What-Nots series)
1934 documentary now in the public domain. Hosted at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
. The narrator has a patronizing attitude to Guatemalans, but the footage is interesting.
"Volcán de Agua, Guatemala" on Peakbagger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agua
Mountains of Guatemala
Stratovolcanoes of Guatemala
Subduction volcanoes
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 ...
Sacatepéquez Department
Sierra Madre de Chiapas
Pleistocene stratovolcanoes