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Report on Machin (Colombia) — 5 September-11 September 2012


Machin

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 5 September-11 September 2012
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2012. Report on Machin (Colombia) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 5 September-11 September 2012. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (5 September-11 September 2012)

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 that at 0732 on 9 September a M 3.6 volcano-tectonic earthquake occurred below the main lava dome at Cerro Machín at a depth of 3.2 km, and was felt by nearby residents. 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.

Source: Servicio Geológico Colombiano (SGC)