Report on Machin (Colombia) — 15 September-21 September 2010
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 15 September-21 September 2010
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2010. Report on Machin (Colombia) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 15 September-21 September 2010. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.
Machin
Colombia
4.487°N, 75.389°W; summit elev. 2749 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
According to INGEOMINAS, Observatory Vulcanológico and Sismológico de Manizales reported increased seismicity from Cerro Machín on 17 September. About 140 volcano-tectonic earthquakes as large as M 1.85 were located S and SW of the main lava dome at depths of 2-4 km. The Alert level remained at III (Yellow; "changes in the behavior of volcanic activity").
Geological Summary. The small Cerro Machín stratovolcano lies at the southern end of the Ruiz-Tolima massif about 20 km WNW of the city of Ibagué. A 3-km-wide caldera is breached to the south and contains three forested dacitic lava domes. Voluminous pyroclastic flows traveled up to 40 km away during eruptions in the mid-to-late Holocene, perhaps associated with formation of the caldera. Late-Holocene eruptions produced dacitic block-and-ash flows that traveled through the breach in the caldera rim to the west and south. The latest known eruption of took place about 800 years ago.
