No latest activity reported for Ojos del Salado, Nevados.

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.

Baker P E, Gonzalez-Ferran O, Rex D C, 1987. Geology and geochemistry of the Ojos del Salado volcanic region, Chile. {J Geol Soc London}, 144: 85-96

Casertano L, 1963a. Chilean Continent. {Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields}, Rome: IAVCEI, 15: 1-55

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

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

The world's highest active volcano, Nevados Ojos del Salado, rises to 6887 m along the Chile-Argentina border. The volcano lies about 20 km south of the road that crosses the international border at Paso de San Francisco. The summit complex, which is elongated in a NE-SW direction and overlies a largely buried caldera, contains numerous craters, pyroclastic cones and andesitic-to-rhyolitic lava domes and has been the source of Holocene lava flows. A major rhyodacitic explosive eruption took place about 1000-1500 years ago, producing pumiceous pyroclastic flows. The most recent eruptive activity of Ojos del Salado appears to have originated along a NNE-trending rift along the summit complex. It involved formation of a thick, viscous lava flow and at least a dozen small cones, lava domes, and explosion craters. No confirmed historical eruptions of Ojos del Salado have been recorded, but the volcano has displayed persistent fumarolic activity, and there was an unconfirmed report of minor gas-and-ash emission in 1993.