No latest activity reported for Bárcena.

Below is a summary of eruption dates and Volcanic Explosivity Indices (VEI).

The following references are the sources used for data regarding this volcano. References are linked directly to our volcano data file. Discussion of another volcano or eruption (sometimes far from the one that is the subject of the manuscript) may produce a citation that is not at all apparent from the title. Additional discussion of data sources can be found under Volcano Data Criteria.

Green J, Short N M, 1971. {Volcanic Landforms and Surface Features: a Photographic Atlas and Glossary}. New York: Springer-Verlag, 519 p

Luhr J F, Kimberly P G, Siebert L, Aranda-Gomez J J, Housh T B, Kysar Mattietti G, 2006. Quaternary volcanic rocks: insights from the MEXPET petrological and geochemical database. {In}: Siebe S, Macias J-L, Aguirre-Diaz G J (eds) Neogone-Quaternary continental margin volcanism: a perspective from Mexico, {Geol Soc Amer Spec Pap}, 402: 1-44

Mooser F, Meyer-Abich H, McBirney A R, 1958. Central America. {Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields}, Rome: IAVCEI, 6: 1-146

Richards A F, 1959. Geology of the Islas Revillagigedo, Mexico 1. Birth and development of Volcan Barcena, Isla San Benedicto. {Bull Volc}, 22: 73-124

Richards A F, 1966. Geology of the Islas Revillagigedo, Mexico, 2. Geology and petrography of Isla San Benedicto. {Proc Calif Acad Sci}, 33: 361-414

Richards A F, 1965. Geology of the Islas Revillagigedo, 3. Effects of erosion on Isla San Benedicto 1952-61 following the birth of Volcan Barcena. {Bull Volc}, 28: 381-403

Volcán Bárcena, formed by eruptions during 1952-53, is the most prominent feature of Isla San Benedicto, the NE-most of the Revillagigedo Islands, 350 km south of the tip of Baja California. San Benedicto island, elongated in a NE-SW direction, contains a series of Pleistocene trachytic lava domes at the north end. The southern end of the 4.5-km-long island is formed by Bárcena and Montículo Cinerítico, a smaller tephra cone that preceded and was largely overtopped by Bárcena. Montículo Cinerítico may also have been constructed during the past few hundred years and formed the high point of the island prior to the formation of Bárcena. Growth of the 300-m-high Bárcena tephra cone beginning in August 1952 was accompanied by strong explosive eruptions and pyroclastic flows. The eruption concluded the following year with the emplacement of two small lava domes in the crater and extrusion of a prominent coastal lava delta at the SE base of the cone.