page_title: Coropuna
section_title: Elevation and size
hierarchical_section_title: Coropuna / Geography and geomorphology / Elevation and size
caption_attribution_description: Above the Rio Colca, Peru.
context_page_description: Coropuna is a dormant compound volcano located in the Andes mountains of southeast-central Peru. The upper reaches of Coropuna consist of several perennially snowbound conical summits, lending it the name Nevado Coropuna in Spanish. The complex extends over an area of 240 square kilometres and its highest summit reaches an altitude of 6,377 metres above sea level. This makes the Coropuna complex the third-highest of Peru. Its thick ice cap is the most extensive in Earth's tropical zone, with several outlet glaciers stretching out to lower altitudes. Below an elevation of 5,000 metres, there are various vegetation belts which include trees, peat bogs, grasses and also agricultural areas and pastures.
  The Coropuna complex consists of several stratovolcanos. These are composed chiefly of ignimbrites and lava flows on a basement formed by Middle Miocene ignimbrites and lava flows. The Coropuna complex has been active for at least five million years, with the bulk of the current cone having been formed during the Quaternary.
context_section_description: Coropuna is the largest and highest volcano in Peru, highest peak of the Cordillera Ampato and the third-highest mountain in Peru. The highest point of Coropuna is the northwestern dome named Coropuna Casulla, with 6,377 metres (20,922 ft) elevation. Mountaineering sources also cite an elevation of 6,425 m (21,079 ft) for the El Toro summit, which would make Coropuna the 22nd highest mountain in the Andes.
  Estimates on the height of Coropuna have changed over time. In the 19th century, it was one of the candidates for "highest mountain in Peru", with the Mapa del Perú (Map of Peru) of Antonio Raimondi giving an estimated height of 6,949 m (22,799 ft); other candidates were peaks in the Cordillera Blanca. In 1910 it was believed that the volcano was over 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high and thus the highest mountain in South America ahead of Aconcagua, although a North American expedition during the preceding year had determined that Coropuna was not the highest as they only found an elevation of 6,615 m (21,703 ft) and Huascaran is higher than this. Varying snow elevations might also lead to varying height estimates.
  Coropuna has several summits (up to ten overall according to one count) which exceed 6,000 m (20,000 ft) elevation, plus a 5,623 m (18,448 ft) northern summit. Those with individual names are the northwestern Coropuna Casulla at 6,377 m (20,922 ft), El Toro, the western Nevado Pallacocha at 6,171 m (20,246 ft), the central Coropuna Central II at 6,161 m (20,213 ft), Escalera in the western sector of the volcano, Paiche in the central sector, and Coropuna Este and Yana Ranra in the eastern sector.
caption: Coropuna Este
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