Volcn Santamaria is a large active volcano in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, close to the city of Quetzaltenango. Its eruption in 1902 was the second-largest eruption of the 20th century, and the third large eruption of that one year (the others were Mt._Pele in Martinique, and Soufriere in Guadeloupe).
The 1902 eruption blasted away most of one side of the 3,772m tall mountain. Some 5.5 cubic km (1.3 cubic miles) of volcanic material was ejected during the 19-day eruption, and the ash column reached heights of up to 28km. The eruption devastated the surrounding areas.
In 1922, a new volcanic vent formed in the enormous crater, and formed a new volcano, Santiaguito. Santiaguito has been erupting ever since and now forms a cone a few hundred metres tall, reaching an elevation of about 2,500m. Today, it is possible to climb to the top of Santamaria and look down on the ongoing eruptions at Santiaguito, 1,200m below, a situation which may be unique in the world.
References (external links)
Santamaria - pictures and recent activity, from VolcanoWorld (http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/south_america/guat/santa_maria.html)
Such volcanoes, called stratovolcanoes or composite volcanoes, typically erupt explosively and are composed dominantly of andesitic, relatively viscous and short lava flows, interlayered with beds of ash and cinder that thin away from the principal vents.
Volcanoes are found in association with midocean ridge systems (see seafloor spreading) and along convergent plate boundaries, such as around the Pacific Ocean's “Ring of Fire” (see plate tectonics), the ring of plate boundaries associated with volcanic island arcs and ocean trenches surrounding the Pacific Ocean.
In 1989 the Voyager 2 spacecraft observed cryovolcanos (ice volcanoes) on Triton, a moon of Neptune, and in 2005 the Cassini-Huygens probe photographed fountains of frozen particles erupting from Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.
Feeds |
Contact