Pacaya is an active

complex volcano A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano or a volcanic complex, is a mixed landform consisting of related volcanic centers and their associated lava flows and pyroclastic rock. They may form due to changes in eruptive habit or in t ...

in Guatemala, which first erupted approximately 23,000 years ago and has erupted at least 23 times since the

Spanish conquest of Guatemala In a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this te ...

. It rises to an elevation of . After being dormant for over 70 years, it began erupting vigorously in 1961 and has been erupting frequently since then. Much of its activity is Strombolian, but occasional Plinian eruptions also occur, sometimes showering the area of the nearby Departments with ash. Pacaya is a popular tourist attraction. It is even the home to the popular Guatemala Impact Marathon which pioneered the use of a running route across the lava field created by the 2010 eruption and supports the local communities through runners endeavouring to complete th
challenge
It lies 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

and close to Antigua.Google Earth The volcano sits inside the

Escuintla Department Escuintla () is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. The capital of the department is the city of Escuintla. Escuintla covers an area of 4,384 km² and is situated in the coastal lowland region, directly south of Guatemala City, and bord ...

. Volcano Boarding is also practiced on the craters of Pacaya. Villagers near Pacaya ignored an evacuation request as the volcano threw ashes into the air in March 2021.

Geological history

The Pacaya volcano is a part of the Central American Volcanic Arc, a chain of volcanoes stretching from the northwest to the southeast along the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

coast of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, formed by the

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

subduction of the Cocos Tectonic Plate beneath the

Caribbean Plate The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America. Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders ...

. Pacaya lies on the southern edge of a sizable

volcanic caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

formed in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

age which contains Lago de Amatitlán. This caldera has been the source of at least nine very large explosions over the past 300,000 years, erupting a total of about of

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...

. After the last caldera-forming eruption 23,000 years ago, several smaller vents within and around the caldera have seen eruptive activity. Pacaya is the largest post-caldera volcano, and has been one of Central America's most active volcanoes over the last 500 years. It has erupted at least 23 times since the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

, producing

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

and basaltic

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

. About 1,100 years ago the volcano's edifice collapsed, causing a huge landslide. Deposits from the landslide travelled about from the volcano down to the Pacific

coastal plain A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Co ...

. The landslide left a large crater, within which the current active cone has grown. The presence of a

magma chamber A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it up ...

at shallow depths beneath Pacaya means that distortion of the cone leading to instability and future landslides remains a hazard to the surrounding areas.

Recent eruptions

With its almost continuous activity, the volcano has been a popular location for

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

, and is easily accessible from

and from Antigua. Pacaya and the surrounding area now lie within the Pacaya National Park, which was created to supervise and protect tourism in this region. The Pacaya Park generates its income from tour groups who are charged a small fee of 100 Quetzales to enter the park. In 1998, several explosive eruptions emitted lava, debris and ash columns with a height of to . Ash fall affected nearby cities including Guatemala city and

La Aurora International Airport La Aurora International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional La Aurora, ) serves Guatemala City, Guatemala. It is located south of Guatemala City's center and from Antigua Guatemala. It is administered by the Dirección General de Aeronáut ...

. During 2006, a slight increase in Pacaya's volcanic activity brought about the creation of several

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

rivers that slowly flow down its slope. Word about these phenomena spread, and local tourism increased significantly.

May 2010 eruption

On May 27, 2010, the Pacaya volcano erupted, followed by several tremors. At approximately 20:00 hours there was a strong eruption ejecting debris and ash columns up to . Ash rained down in many Guatemalan cities to the northwest of the volcano, including Guatemala City. The volcanic ash fall pelted Guatemala City, and the international airport, La Aurora. The National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) declared a red alert for the communities near the volcano and recommended the evacuation of some of them. Noti7 reporter Anibal Archila, one of the first to cover the event, was reportedly killed by volcanic debris. President

Álvaro Colom Álvaro Colom Caballeros (; born 15 June 1951) is a Guatemalan politician who was the President of Guatemala from 2008 to 2012, as well as leader of the social democracy, social-democratic National Unity of Hope (UNE). Early years Colom was bor ...

declared a state of calamity in the region adjacent to the volcano, and the Ministry of Education closed the schools in the departments of Guatemala, Escuintla, and Sacatepequez. Heavy rainfall from

Tropical Storm Agatha Tropical Storm Agatha was a weak but deadly tropical cyclone that brought widespread floods to much of Central America, and was the deadliest tropical cyclone in the eastern Pacific since Hurricane Pauline in 1997. The first storm of the 2010 Pa ...

worsened the emergency situation, causing lahars, landslides and widespread flooding across the country. However, people working in coffee fields considered the rain brought by the storm to be helpful, removing ash from their trees.

References

External links

Pacaya images and information from VolcanoWorld

BBC News article about an eruption in 2000

Image gallery

File:II2A0950.jpg, Runners at the Impact Marathon race on Pacaya File:Volcan Pacaya.jpg, Volcán Pacaya (2005). File:Pacaya2.jpg, Tourists climbing Pacaya (2004). File:Pacaya.jpg, Noxious gas cloud (2002). File:Pacaya 92-37.jpg, Pacaya after a strombolian eruption (1992). File:Pacaya-08.jpg, Strombolian eruption of Pacaya (1992). File:Pacaya-12.JPEG, Strombolian eruption of Pacaya (1992). File:Rios de lava pacaya.jpg, Lava flow (2006). {{Authority control Active volcanoes Escuintla Department Mountains of Guatemala National parks of Guatemala Complex volcanoes Stratovolcanoes of Guatemala Subduction volcanoes Sierra Madre de Chiapas Protected areas established in 1956

Geological history

Recent eruptions

May 2010 eruption

See also

References

External links

Image gallery