24°14′S 66°30′W / 24.233°S 66.500°W / -24.233; -66.500[1] San Jerónimo is a volcano in Argentina. It is located 18 kilometres (11 mi) from San Antonio de los Cobres[2] and the lava flows are visible from the road.[3]

Also known as San Gerónimo,[4] it is a monogenetic volcano like Negro de Chorrillos[5] and with it part of the geological Piedras Blancas Formation.[6] The volcano has a cone with three craters and reaches an elevation of 4,950 metres (16,240 ft), which covers an area of about 1.9 square kilometres (0.73 sq mi).[7] It developed on top of ignimbrites of Miocene age[1] of the Aguas Calientes caldera and is formed by lava, lava bombs and scoria.[8] The volcano erupted basaltic-trachyandesitic lava which propagated to distances of 8–10 kilometres (5.0–6.2 mi) from the vent[9] and which dammed a local river, forming a lake.[2] The dating of the eruption is uncertain; an older estimate was 780,000 ± 100,000 years ago but a newer indicates that it formed 144,000 ± 3,000 years ago. The older age was probably a product of rocks contaminated by xenoliths.[10]

San Jerónimo is part of a 170 kilometres (110 mi) long alignment of volcanoes along the Calama-Olacapato-El Toro fault. This string of volcanoes is diverse, including calderas and stratovolcanoes on the one hand and plutons and monogenetic volcanoes on the other hand.[11] This fault zone is represented by fault scarps, ponds and springs that occur in the area of the volcanoes.[2] One volcano that is part of this structure is Aguas Calientes caldera,[5] on whose border the San Jerónimo volcano is constructed.[1] The wider region is part of the Andean Central Volcanic Zone, where a number of volcanoes ranging from monogenetic volcanoes over polygenetic volcanoes to calderas developed.[12]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Petrinovic et al. 2006, p. 243.
  2. ^ a b c Fernandez-Turiel et al. 2021, p. 4.
  3. ^ Petrinovic, Iván A. (2008). "Los Volcanes Gemelos de la Poma, El Saladillo, Negro de Chorrillos y San Jerónimo. Las erupciones más recientes en el borde oriental de la Puna". Anales / Instituto de Geologia y Recursos Minerales: 37. ISSN 0328-2325.
  4. ^ Fernandez-Turiel et al. 2021, p. 3.
  5. ^ a b Petrinovic et al. 2006, p. 242.
  6. ^ Sanci, Romina (2019). Aplicación de Isotopos al Estudio Geoambiental de Base de la Región de San Antonio de los Cobres. Salta, Argentina (Report). p. 4. ISSN 2618-5016.
  7. ^ Fernandez-Turiel et al. 2021, p. 6.
  8. ^ Petrinovic et al. 2006, p. 244.
  9. ^ Petrinovic et al. 2006, p. 245.
  10. ^ Fernandez-Turiel et al. 2021, p. 15.
  11. ^ Petrinovic et al. 2006, p. 241.
  12. ^ Fernandez-Turiel et al. 2021, p. 1.

Sources edit