El Salvador's volcanic landscape



With volcanoes in the news lately, a look at some of El Salvador's volcanoes seems timely. The photo above was taken by a NASA astronaut and provides a stunning relief picture of the San Miguel volcano and other volcanoes near Usulutan. The website Fire Earth has a description of the volcanoes and their history:

Usulután: Formed during Holocene (an ongoing geological epoch that began about 12,000 years ago). El Tigre formed during the Pleistocene Epoch (2.588 million to about 12,000 years ago), probably the oldest of member of the family captured in this astronaut photograph. The summit crater of El Tigre has eroded. Chinameca Volcano (also known as El Pacayal) has a two-kilometer-wide caldera formed after a powerful eruption caused its dome to collapse. San Miguel (also known as Chaparrastique), the youngest member of the family, is situated about 15 km southwest of the city of San Miguel, where it takes its name from. It’s one of the most active volcanoes in el Salvador and last erupted in 2002.

Comments

Tambopaxi said…
Very cool photo!