Wednesday 19 February 2020

HUAYNAPUTINA, THE MOST ACTIVE PERUVIAN VOLCANO

Huaynaputina
Yesterday, The Grandma had a meeting with a MEP. The content of the reunion is a secret and nobody knows anything except The Grandma and the MEP. The Grandma did not publish any post to not give any clue about this meeting but she has confessed they were talking about the future.

Today, The Grandma was resting at her hotel in Brussels thinking about yesterday when she has received news from Joseph de Ca'th Lon, one of her closest friends. He is visiting Peru and he has sent her some photos about the Huaynaputina, the famous volcano that erupted on a day like today in 1600 being the largest historical eruption in South America.

The Grandma loves volcanos and Joseph knows it. He has sent her some information about the Huaynaputina to know and study and The Grandma is totally excited with it. The eruption of the Huaynaputina buried twenty cities killing the most part of their inhabitants. For this reason, the Huaynaputina is also known as the Vesuvius of South America. This eruption changed the climate causing a global disruption.

Huaynaputina is a stratovolcano in a volcanic upland in southern Peru. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andean Volcanic Belt, it is the product of the subduction of the oceanic Nazca tectonic plate beneath the continental part of the South American tectonic plate at a rate of 10.3 centimetres per year.


Huaynaputina is a large volcanic crater, lacking an identifiable mountain profile, with an outer stratovolcano and three younger volcanic vents. The vents of Huaynaputina form a north-northwest–south-southeast trend.

More information: Smithsonian Institution

The volcano erupted several times during the Holocene, the largest eruption took place in the year 1600. The 1600 eruption was the largest historical eruption in South America, measuring 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. It occurred on 19 February and continued with a series of events into March. 

Witnessed by the people of the city of Arequipa, its impact in the region was severe, wiping out vegetation and burying the surroundings with 2 metres of volcanic rock; it also damaged infrastructure and economic resources. The eruption had significant effects on Earth's climate, decreasing temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, causing floods, famines and cold waves in numerous places, and depositing several million tons of acid. The climate disruption caused social upheaval in many countries such as Russia and may have played a role in the onset of the Little Ice Age.

Huaynaputina has not erupted since 1600. Today there are fumaroles in Huaynaputina's amphitheatre, and hot springs occur in the region, some of which have been associated with Huaynaputina. The volcano lies in a remote region, where there is little human activity.


Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits the Huaynaputina
Still, there are about 30,000 people living in the surrounding area, with another 800,000 in Arequipa. If Huaynaputina underwent a similar eruption to its 1600 event, it would likely lead to a significantly higher death toll and cause substantial socioeconomic disruption.

The name Huaynaputina was given to the volcano after its 1600 eruption and is also spelled Huayna Putina or Guagua Putina. According to one translation, Huayna means new and Putina means fire throwing mountain, the full name meant to suggest the aggressiveness of its volcanic activity but also of the 1600 eruption being the first one at that volcano. 


Two other translations are young boiling one -perhaps a reference to earlier eruptions- or where young were boiled, which may refer to human sacrifices. Other names for the volcano include Chequepuquina, Chiquimote, Guayta, Omate and Quinistaquillas. Reportedly, the volcano El Misti was sometimes confused with and thus referred to mistakenly as Huaynaputina.

The volcano is part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes. Other volcanoes in this volcanic zone from northwest to southeast include Sara Sara, Coropuna, Ampato, Sabancaya, El Misti, Ubinas, Ticsani, Tutupaca and Yucamane.


More information: Hindawi

Ubinas is the most active volcano in Peru, and El Misti, Sabancaya, Ticsani, Tutupaca, Ubinas and Yucamane -as well as Huaynaputina- have been active in historical time while Sara Sara, Coropuna, Ampato, Casiri and Chachani are considered to be dormant volcanoes. Most volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone are large composite volcanoes that can remain active over the span of several million years, but there are also conical stratovolcanoes with shorter lifespans.

Huaynaputina is located in the Omate and Quinistaquillas Districts, which lie within General Sánchez Cerro Province in the Moquegua Region of southern Peru. The town of Omate lies 16 kilometres southwest of Huaynaputina, while the cities of Moquegua and Arequipa are located 65 km south-southwest and 80 km north-northwest of the volcano.

There is little human activity in the area near the volcano. The region is generally remote and the terrain extreme, and thus the area around Huaynaputina is not easily accessible. A cattle grazing footpath leads from Quinistaquillas to the volcano, and it is possible to approach the volcano over surrounding ash plains.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits the Huaynaputina
Huaynaputina lies at an elevation of about 4,850 metres. It consists of an outer composite volcano or stratovolcano and three younger volcanic vents nested within a 2.5-kilometre wide and 400-metre deep amphitheatre. This horseshoe-shaped structure is set in the older volcano at an elevation of 4,400 m and opens eastwards.

The amphitheatre lies at the margin of a rectangular high plateau that is covered by about 2-metre-thick ash over an area of 50 square kilometres. In general, the volcano has modest dimensions and rises less than 600 m above the surrounding terrain, but the products of the volcano's 1600 eruption cover much of the region to this day especially west, north and south from the amphitheatre; these include pyroclastic flow dunes that crop out from underneath the tephra.

Deposits from the 1600 eruption and previous events also crop out within the amphitheatre walls. Another southeastward-opening landslide scar lies just north of Huaynaputina.

The oceanic Nazca tectonic plate is subducting at a rate of 10.3 centimetres per year beneath the continental part of the South American tectonic plate, and this process is responsible for volcanic activity and the uplift of the Andes mountains and Altiplano plateau. The subduction is oblique, leading to strike-slip faulting. Volcanic activity does not occur along the entire length of the Andes; where subduction is shallow, there are gaps with little volcanic activity. Between these gaps lie volcanic belts: the Northern Volcanic Zone, the Central Volcanic Zone, the Southern Volcanic Zone and the Austral Volcanic Zone.


More information: Nature

Between 4,000–5,000 metres in elevation mean temperatures are about 6 °C with cold nights, while at Omate, mean temperatures reach 15 °C with little seasonal variation. Precipitation averages 154.8 millimetres per year, falling mainly during a summer wet season between December and March. This results in an arid climate, where little erosion occurs and volcanic products are well preserved. Vegetation in the area of Huaynaputina is scarce, and on the pumice deposits from the 1600 eruption it only occurs during the wet season. Cacti can be found on rocky outcrops and valley bottoms.

Based on historical records, Huaynaputina's eruption commenced on 16 February 1600, following earthquakes that began on the 15th, with the earliest signs of the impending eruption perhaps in December 1599. The event ended on 6 March with ash fall; the air was clear of ash from the eruption on 2 April 1600. Some reports of late ash falls may be due to wind-transported ash, and there are no deposits from a supposed eruption in August 1600; such reports may refer to mudflows or explosions in pyroclastic flows.

Joseph visits Estagagache in Moquegua, Peru
At first, the eruption of 1600 was attributed to Ubinas volcano and sometimes also to El Misti. Priests observed and recorded the eruption from Arequipa, and the friar Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa wrote a second-hand account of the eruption based on a witness's report from Arequipa.
 
The scale of the eruption and of its climate impact have been determined thanks to information from historical records, tree ring data, the position of glaciers, the thickness of speleothems and ice, plant flowering times, wine harvests and coral growth. Anomalies in the sun were observed after the eruption in Europe and China, often described as a dimming or reddening haze that reduced the sun's luminosity in a cloudless sky and reduced the visibility of shadows. Vivid sunsets and sunrises as well as sunspots were also noted. A darkened lunar eclipse described from Graz, Austria, in 1601 may also have been the consequence of the Huaynaputina aerosols.

Acid layers in ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland have been attributed to Huaynaputina, and their discovery led to initial discussion about whether the 1600 eruption had major effects on Earth's climate.
 
More information: Live Science

About 30,000 people live in the area of Huaynaputina today, with about 800,000 in Arequipa, and the towns of Calacoa, Omate, Puquina and Quinistaquillas and others would be threatened in case of renewed eruptions. A repeat of the 1600 eruption would likely cause a considerably greater death toll owing to population growth since 1600, in addition to causing substantial socioeconomic disruption in the Andes.

The 1600 eruption is often used as a worst case scenario model for eruptions at Peruvian volcanoes.

In 2010, earthquake activity and noises from Huaynaputina alerted the local population and led to a volcanological investigation. As part of this investigation, seismic activity was recorded around the amphitheatre; analysis showed that seismic activity was concentrated around the amphitheatre with no recorded earthquakes within it and appeared to be associated mainly with the faults and lineaments in the region.


The researchers recommended more extensive seismometer coverage of the area and regular sampling of fumaroles, as well as reconnaissance of georadar and self potential of the volcano.

In 2017, the Peruvian Geophysical Institute announced that Huaynaputina would be monitored by the future Southern Volcanological Observatory.

More information: Zurich


If I was to establish a system, it would be,
that Mountains are produced by Volcanoes,
and not Volcanoes by Mountains.

Sir William Hamilton

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