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Report on Masaya (Nicaragua) — January 1981


Masaya

Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 1 (January 1981)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.

Masaya (Nicaragua) Gas emission event continues

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1981. Report on Masaya (Nicaragua) (McClelland, L., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 6:1. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198101-344100



Masaya

Nicaragua

11.9844°N, 86.1688°W; summit elev. 594 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


The gas emission event that began in fall 1979 continued with a steady release of very large amounts of SO2 in early 1981. Strong winds carried the gas plume onto populated areas at high elevations. A day of notable rockfall activity in the crater was followed for 1 day by a significantly larger rate of gas release.

Geological Summary. Masaya volcano in Nicaragua has erupted frequently since the time of the Spanish Conquistadors, when an active lava lake prompted attempts to extract the volcano's molten "gold" until it was found to be basalt rock upon cooling. It lies within the massive Pleistocene Las Sierras caldera and is itself a broad, 6 x 11 km basaltic caldera with steep-sided walls up to 300 m high. The caldera is filled on its NW end by more than a dozen vents that erupted along a circular, 4-km-diameter fracture system. The NindirĂ­ and Masaya cones, the source of observed eruptions, were constructed at the southern end of the fracture system and contain multiple summit craters, including the currently active Santiago crater. A major basaltic Plinian tephra erupted from Masaya about 6,500 years ago. Recent lava flows cover much of the caldera floor and there is a lake at the far eastern end. A lava flow from the 1670 eruption overtopped the north caldera rim. Periods of long-term vigorous gas emission at roughly quarter-century intervals have caused health hazards and crop damage.

Information Contacts: R. Stoiber and S. Williams, Dartmouth College; D. de Jerez, IRENA, Managua; D. Fajardo B., Instituto de Investigaciones Sísmicas.