No latest activity reported for Misti, El.

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.

Bullard F M, 1962. Volcanoes of Southern Peru. {Bull Volc}, 24: 443-453

de Silva S L, Francis P W, 1990. Potentially active volcanoes of Peru - observations using Landsat Thematic Mapper and Space Shuttle imagery. {Bull Volc}, 52: 286-301

de Silva S L, Francis P W, 1991. {Volcanoes of the Central Andes}. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 216 p

Finizola A, Lenat J-F, Macedo O, Ramos D, Thouret J-C, Sortino F, 2004. Fluid circulation and structural discontinuities inside Misti volcano (Peru) inferred from self-potential measurements. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 135: 343-360

Gonzalez-Ferran O, 1995. {Volcanes de Chile}. Santiago: Instituto Geografico Militar, 635 p

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

Hantke G, Parodi I, 1966. Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. {Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields}, Rome: IAVCEI, 19: 1-73

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

Legros F, 2001. Tephra stratigraphy of Misti volcano, Peru. {J South Amer Earth Sci}, 14: 15-29

Parodi-I A, 1979. . (pers. comm.)

Ruprecht P, Worner G, 2007. Variable regimes in magma systems documented in plagioclast zoning patterns: El Misti stratovolcano and Andahua monogenetic cones. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 165: 142-162

Thouret J-C, Finizola A, Fornari M, Legeley-Padovani A, Suni J, Frechen M, 2001. Geology of El Misti volcano near the city of Arequipa, Peru. {Geol Soc Amer Bull}, 113: 1593-1610

Tort A, Finizola A, 2005. The buried caldera of Misti volcano, Peru, revealed by combining a self-potential survey with elliptic Fourier function analysis of topography. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 141: 283-297

Wilson C J N, Houghton B F, Kamp P J J, McWilliams M O, 1995b. An exceptionally widespread ignimbrite with implications for pyroclastic flow emplacement. {Nature}, 378: 605-607

El Misti, Peru's most well-known volcano, is a symmetrical andesitic stratovolcano with nested summit craters that towers above the city of Arequipa. The modern symmetrical cone, constructed within a small 1.5 x 2 km wide summit caldera that formed between about 13,700 and 11,300 years ago, caps older Pleistocene volcanoes that underwent caldera collapse about 50,000 years ago. A large scoria cone has grown with the 830-m-wide outer summit crater of El Misti. At least 20 tephra-fall deposits and numerous pyroclastic-flow deposits have been documented during the past 50,000 years, including a pyroclastic flow that traveled 12 km to the south about 2000 years ago. El Misti's most recent activity has been dominantly pyroclastic, and strong winds have formed a parabolic dune field of volcanic ash extending up to 20 km downwind. An eruption in the 15th century affected Inca inhabitants living near the volcano. Some reports of historical eruptions may represent increased fumarolic activity.