page_title: Huaynaputina
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Huaynaputina / Geology
caption_attribution_description: Volcanic Zones of the Andes
context_page_description: Huaynaputina is a stratovolcano in a volcanic upland in southern Peru. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andean Volcanic Belt, it is the product of the subduction of the oceanic Nazca tectonic plate beneath the continental part of the South American tectonic plate at a rate of 10.3 centimetres per year. Huaynaputina is a large volcanic crater, lacking an identifiable mountain profile, with an outer stratovolcano and three younger volcanic vents. The vents of Huaynaputina form a north-northwest–south-southeast trend.
  The volcano erupted several times during the Holocene, the largest eruption took place in the year 1600. The 1600 eruption was the largest historical eruption in South America, measuring 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. It occurred on 19 February and continued with a series of events into March. Witnessed by the people of the city of Arequipa, its impact in the region was severe, wiping out vegetation and burying the surroundings with 2 metres of volcanic rock; it also damaged infrastructure and economic resources.
context_section_description: The oceanic Nazca tectonic plate is subducting at a rate of 10.3 centimetres per year (4.1 in/year) beneath the continental part of the South American tectonic plate, and this process is responsible for volcanic activity and the uplift of the Andes mountains and Altiplano plateau. The subduction is oblique, leading to strike-slip faulting. Volcanic activity does not occur along the entire length of the Andes;  where subduction is shallow, there are gaps with little volcanic activity. Between these gaps lie volcanic belts: the Northern Volcanic Zone, the Central Volcanic Zone, the Southern Volcanic Zone and the Austral Volcanic Zone.
  About 400 Pliocene-Quaternary volcanoes can be found in Peru, with Quaternary activity limited to the southern part of the country, which is part of the Central Volcanic Zone. There, volcanic activity has since the Jurassic moved from the present-day coast region where remnants persist in the Cordillera de la Costa eastward into the actual Andes and the present-day volcanic arc, where it is defined by stratovolcanoes. Many Peruvian volcanoes are remote and difficult to access; thus volcanic activity there is poorly studied.
  The basement underneath Huaynaputina is formed by almost 2-kilometre-thick (1.2 mi) sediments and volcanic intrusions of Paleozoic to Mesozoic age including the Yura Group as well as the Cretaceous Matalaque Formation of volcanic origin. During the Tertiary, these were overlaid by a total of 300–500 m-thick (0.19–0.31 mi) deposits from the ignimbritic Capillune, Llallahui and Sencca Formations. The emplacement of the Capillune Formation continued into the earliest Pliocene; subsequently the Plio-Pleistocene Barroso Group was deposited, which includes the composite volcano that hosts Huaynaputina but also ignimbrites that appear to come from calderas. One such caldera is located just south of Huaynaputina. The late Pleistocene to Holocene volcanoes have been classified as the Arequipa Volcanics.
caption: The volcanic zones of the Andes
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