No latest activity reported for Lajas, Las.

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.

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. {IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior}.

McBirney A R, Williams H, 1965. Volcanic history of Nicaragua. {Univ Calif Pub Geol Sci}, 55: 1-65

Parsons Corporation, 1972. The Geology of Western Nicaragua. {Nicaragua Tax Improvement and Natural Resources Inventory Project}, Final Technical Rpt, v. IV

Plank T, Balzer V, Carr M, 2002. Nicaraguan volcanoes record paleoceanographic changes accompanying closure of the Panama gateway. {Geology}, 30: 1087-1090

van Wyk de Vries B, 1999. . (pers. comm.)

Las Lajas is the largest volcano of possible Quaternary age east of the Nicaraguan graben. The broad, low, basaltic shield volcano is truncated by a 7-km-wide, steep-walled caldera. The 650-m-deep caldera is breached by a narrow canyon on the SE side that drains into Lake Nicaragua. Five coalescing andesitic-dacitic lava domes are located in the center of the caldera, and additional domes are present on the outer flanks. Las Lajas was considered to be of Holocene age on the basis of youthful morphology (McBirney and Williams, 1965), however Plank et al. (2002) obtained three radiometric dates of Miocene age, and the main edifice may be older than previously thought. Van Wyk de Vries (1999, pers. comm.) earlier noted that Las Lajas itself was of probable Pleistocene age, but that youthful cinder cones on the flanks are similar to those of the Nejapa alignment and may be of Holocene age.