Solimana is a

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

massif in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, that is approximately high. It is considered an extinct

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

that is part of the Central Volcanic Zone, one of the volcanic belts of the Andes. It features a caldera as well as traces of a sector collapse and subsequent erosion. The volcano is glaciated.

Geomorphology and geography

Regional

It is situated in the

Arequipa Region Arequipa () is a department and region in southwestern Peru. It is the sixth largest department in Peru, after Puno, Cuzco, Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto, its sixth most populous department, and its eleventh least densely populated dep ...

, Condesuyos Province, in the districts of Chichas and

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

, and in the La Unión Province, in the districts of Cotahuasi and

Toro Toro may refer to: Places *Toro, Molise, a ''comune'' in the Province of Campobasso, Italy *Toro, Nigeria, a Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria *Toro, Shizuoka, an archaeological site in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan *Toro, Zamora, a ''m ...

. Several towns lie around the volcano. Solimana is part of the Peruvian segment of the

Central Volcanic Zone The Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andean cordillera in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is formed as a result of subduction of the Nazca plate and Antarctic plate underneath the South Americ ...

of the Andes. The Central Volcanic Zone in this segment has both generated large

composite volcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a ...

es which rise above their basement and monogenetic volcanoes and

volcanic field A volcanic field is an area of Earth's Earth's crust, crust that is prone to localized volcano, volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters ...

s. This zone of volcanoes includes, from northwest to southeast,

Sara Sara Sara Sara is a volcano lying between Lake Parinacochas and the Ocoña River in Peru. It is situated in the provinces of Parinacochas and Paucar del Sara Sara. The volcano formed during the Pleistocene during four different stages of volcan ...

, Solimana, Coropuna, Andagua volcanic field, Huambo volcanic field,

Ampato Ampato (possibly from Quechua ''hamp'atu'' or from Aymara ''jamp'atu'', both meaning "frog") is a dormant stratovolcano in the Andes of southern Peru. It lies about northwest of Arequipa and is part of a north-south chain that includes the v ...

, Sabancaya, Cerro Nicholson,

Chachani Chachani is a volcanic group in southern Peru, northwest of the city of Arequipa. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it is above sea level. It consists of several lava domes and individual volcanoes such as Nocarane, along with ...

, Misti, Ubinas, Huaynaputina, Ticsani, and Tutupaca, some of which have been active during historical time.

Local

Solimana rises above an approximately high basement. It has a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

, which gives it an asymmetric appearance; further on the south flank both the basement and inner parts of the edifice crop out. This asymmetry was caused by large

sector collapse A sector collapse or lateral collapse is the structural failure and subsequent collapse of a minimum volume of of a volcano. Unlike smaller flank collapses, a sector collapse can involve the central volcanic pipe and historically this term had b ...

s and subsequent erosion of the southern flank. The main edifice is formed by a

compound 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 i ...

accompanied by

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions ...

s and

lava flows 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 unde ...

as well as

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

s and

lahar A lahar (, from ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of Pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a valley, river valley. Lahars are o ...

s, the latter relating to the formation of the collapse structure. Solimana has a high relief reaching approximately , the consequence of glacial erosion. Neighbouring

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

s have begun to incise the edifice. The Cotahuasi Canyon runs north of Solimana, and the southern flank is drained by numerous ''quebradas''. During the

last glacial maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered m ...

a number of

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s developed on Solimana, the longest of which occupied the Quebrada Caño on the northern flank and reached length. There have been approximately five episodes of glaciation on Solimana in total. Later glaciations after the Last Glacial maximum emplaced conspicuous moraines, which are well preserved by the arid climate. Presently, glaciers are restricted to a valley on the northern slope and the steep southeastern flank; a report in 1992 indicated the presence of an ice cap covering a surface of . In addition,

rock glacier Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms that consist either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in between. Rock glaciers are normally found at hi ...

s are present on Solimana.

Geology

The

Nazca Plate The Nazca plate or Nasca plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic list of tectonic plates, tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the Peru– ...

subducts Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second pla ...

beneath the

South America Plate The South American plate is a major tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America as well as a sizable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the African plate, with which it forms the southern part of the Mid- ...

at a rate of ; it has slowed since the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

. This subduction process is responsible for the formation of the Andes mountains in the region. Together with Sara Sara and Coropuna, Solimana is located on the northwestern end of the

; no volcanism occurs farther north where the Nazca Plate subducts at a shallower angle than beneath the Central Volcanic Zone. Of these volcanoes, Solimana is considered to be the oldest and Coropuna the youngest. Solimana together with

and Coropuna form the Cordillera Ampato. The

basement A basement is any Storey, floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, water heating, ...

dates back to the

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

and is buried beneath several pre-

formations. The Tacaza formation forms a Miocene-Oligocene layer of volcanic and sedimentary rocks that are overlain by

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

volcanoes, which include the Barroso Group formation and the Pliocene Sencca formation.

Composition

Samples taken from Solimana are

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 predomina ...

and

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

, but more recently

basaltic andesite Basaltic andesite is a volcanic rock that is intermediate in composition between basalt and andesite. It is composed predominantly of augite and plagioclase. Basaltic andesite can be found in volcanoes around the world, including in Central Ameri ...

was erupted as well. The rocks contain

hornblende Hornblende is a complex silicate minerals#Inosilicates, inosilicate series of minerals. It is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole. Hornblende minerals are common ...

hypersthene Hypersthene is a common rock-forming inosilicate mineral belonging to the group of orthorhombic pyroxenes. Its chemical formula is . It is found in igneous and some metamorphic rocks as well as in stony and iron meteorites. Many references have f ...

, and

plagioclase Plagioclase ( ) is a series of Silicate minerals#Tectosilicates, tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continu ...

, with additional

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...

in the phreatomagmatic deposits. The geochemistry of volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone typically displays strong evidence of crustal contamination, which is attributed to the thick crust that has developed in this region. A granulitic basement may be a plausible origin of this contamination, with additional contribution of subducted

sediments Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

Vegetation

Llareta and ichu grass form the thin vegetation up to about altitude.

Archeology

The

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

considered Solimana and Coropuna to be sacred mountains, which were within the Inca Condesuyos province. In 2008, an Inca archeological site was discovered on Solimana's eastern flank, in the locality of Minticocha. The site most likely served religious and ceremonial purposes. According to colonial period sources, Solimana is the site of a major oracle, but this oracle is more likely to be located at Muyu Muyu close to the town of Yanque than at Minticocha.

First ascent

First ascent to the main summit (central peak), 6’093m.(19’990 ft), on 1st August 1970 by Mario Bignami (CAI) Italy, and Julian Blanco Herrera, Peru. Note: In 1952, Mathias Rebitsch, Piero Ghiglione, Anders Bolinder and Alberto Parodi climbed the North peak, the second highest peak.

Eruption history

Solimana is an

extinct volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the Crust (geology), crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth ...

. It was active during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

and

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58 with the last eruption occurring between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. The collapses occurred at some time between 3.05 and 1.5 million years ago and after the collapse volcanism became centered inside the collapse scar and its margins, with the youngest activity forming phreatomagmatic deposits within the caldera and a

scoria cone A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep, conical landform of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic ash, clinkers, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are formed by explosive eruptions or l ...

on its south. Solimana may be the source of the Lomas

deposit and the Upper Sencca

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surrou ...

. The Upper Sencca ignimbrite was erupted between 1.76 and 2.09 million years ago and filled several valleys with of material, while the Lomas deposit was erupted between 1.56 and 1.26 million years ago. Solimana still features

fumarolic A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or another rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

activity within the caldera and the Peruvian geophysical institute has installed a

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the locally shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a conn ...

control point on the volcano. It is considered a moderately dangerous volcano.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sulimana Stratovolcanoes of Peru Mountains of the Department of Arequipa Andean Volcanic Belt Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Six-thousanders of the Andes