 Past eruptions of Quizapu Crater ejected enormous amounts of ash that traveled as far as Brazil. After the 1932 eruption, the local vegetation was devastated, and the area remained barren until the 1990s, though human life was not impacted. Despite the extent of its eruptions, the threat to humans from Quizapu is relatively small because of the remote location of Cerro Azul. Nevertheless, the size of past eruptions is large enough for scientists to be worried. Evidence of a potentially deadly threat lies in a lahar at Descabezado Grande. Historically, lahars have killed thousands in the Andes. There is, however, a possibility that a large reservoir of rhyodacite magma may exist under the Azul – Descabezado complex. If this is the case, all previous eruptions in 1846 – 1967 were only preliminary, preclimactic leaks from the large magma chamber beneath, and a large caldera-forming eruption may be expected in the future.
