Tatajachura

Tatajachura
Tatajachura
Highest point
Elevation	5,240 m (17,190 ft) [1]
Coordinates	19°30′S69°07′W / 19.5°S 69.12°W / -19.5; -69.12 [1]

Tatajachura is a stratovolcano in Chile, in the Isluga National Park. ^[2]

During the Pliocene and Pleistocene it erupted lava flows of andesitic composition ^[1] and has a crater that opens westwards. ^[3] The volcano is also the source of the Quebrada de Chiapa valley, ^[4] and of an Inca ruin on the summit; human sacrifices were performed at the mountain to obtain a reliable water supply. ^[5]

The age of eruptive activity is unclear; while the appearance of the edifice suggests a lower Pliocene age, its position in the Precordillera and atop an older plain suggests it may be older than that. ^[6] Potassium-argon dating has yielded one age, 6 ± 1.3 million years ago. ^[7]

References

1. "Cerro Tatajachura". Global Volcanism Program . Smithsonian Institution.
2. Santibáñez, Hernán Torres (2004). Los parques nacionales de Chile: una guía para el visitante (in Spanish). Editorial Universitaria. ISBN   9789561117013.
3. Gonzalez-Ferran, Oscar (1994). Volcanes de Chile (1. ed.). Santiago, Chile: Instituto geografico militar. p. 132. ISBN   9789562020541.
4. Espinoza, Enrique (1897). Jeografía descriptiva de la república de Chile, arreglada según las últimas divisiones administrativas, las más recientes esploraciones i en conformidad al censo jeneral de la república levantado el 28 de noviembre de 1895 (in Spanish). University of Michigan. Santiago de Chile, Imprenta i encuadernación Barcelona. p.  70.
5. Reinhard, Johan (1985). "Sacred Mountains: An Ethno-Archaeological Study of High Andean Ruins" (PDF). Mountain Research and Development. 5 (4): 299–317. doi:10.2307/3673292. JSTOR   3673292.
6. Farías, Marcelo; Charrier, Reynaldo; Comte, Diana; Martinod, Joseph; Hérail, Gérard (1 August 2005). "Late Cenozoic deformation and uplift of the western flank of the Altiplano: Evidence from the depositional, tectonic, and geomorphologic evolution and shallow seismic activity (northern Chile at 19°30′S)". Tectonics. 24 (4): 8–9. Bibcode:2005Tecto..24.4001F. doi: 10.1029/2004TC001667 . ISSN   1944-9194.
7. Herrera, Sebastian; Pinto, Luisa; Deckart, Katja; Cortés, Javier; Valenzuela, Javier (31 May 2017). "Cenozoic tectonostratigraphic evolution and architecture of the Central Andes in northern Chile based on the Aquine region, Western Cordillera (19°-19º30' S)". Andean Geology. 44 (2): 87–122. doi: 10.5027/andgeoV44n2-a01 . ISSN   0718-7106.