Wednesday, 1 January 2014

The Chaparrastique volcano erupts!

First things first...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So what geological happenings have occurred over the festive season? Well this story caught my eye…

  • The Chaparrastique volcano in eastern El Salvador has erupted!




Volcanoes can go off as and when they choose and this one has been looking quite restless for a while now. The volcano began spewing hot ash and smoke into the air but no-one has been hurt and anyone living within a 3km radius (shown below) of the volcano has been evacuated and moved to temporary shelters to minimise the risk. In this part of the world though there are more than 20 volcanoes in close proximity, so an impending volcano eruption is truely old news.



This volcano is a stratovolcano built up by many layers of lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. This volcano and the many others lie on the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’ which is a very large area of subducting tectonic plate. The region contains the most active volcanoes on Earth which are capable of great explosive eruptions. 

You can read more on this story here:

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