Tskhouk-Karckar or Qarqar is a group of

pyroclastic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

s which is located in the central part of the Siunik volcanic ridge at the border of

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...

and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

SE of Lake Sevan. The volcanoes lie on the northwest side of Tskhouk volcano and are constructed on a volcanic basement or

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

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 Am ...

s 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 rhyo ...

s. The volcanoes erupted voluminous and long lava flows, grouped in three age-based stages of varying age and conservation. Petroglyphs have been found buried under the most recent stages and broken by earthquake activity, suggesting activity between the 4th–early 3rd millennium BC and 4720 ± 140 years BP, a date established by C14 analysis on graves inside the lava flows. There is evidence indicating that the last stage of activity resulted in abandonment of the area by humans, only resuming during the Middle Ages.

References

Stratovolcanoes Subduction volcanoes Volcanoes of Armenia Mountains of Armenia Mountains of Azerbaijan Volcanoes of Azerbaijan {{Armenia-geo-stub