OVDAS-SERNAGEOMIN reported that during 1-28 February seismicity increased at Descabezado Grande, in the Laguna del Maule volcanic complex area. There were 127 earthquakes detected, with magnitudes 1.7 or less, mostly comprised of volcano-tectonic earthquakes. The seismic swarms were associated with deformation and considered to be at a high level. On 8 March the Alert Level was raised to Yellow.

All times are local (= UTC - 9 hours [or 8 hours early April-late October])

2013: March |

6 March 2013              Back to Top

OVDAS-SERNAGEOMIN reported that during 1-28 February seismicity increased at Descabezado Grande, in the Laguna del Maule volcanic complex area. There were 127 earthquakes detected, with magnitudes 1.7 or less, mostly comprised of volcano-tectonic earthquakes. The seismic swarms were associated with deformation and considered to be at a high level. On 8 March the Alert Level was raised to Yellow.

Sources: Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SERNAGEOMIN)

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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.

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

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

Hildreth W, Drake R E, 1992. Volcan Quizapu, Chilean Andes. {Bull Volc}, 54: 93-125

Hildreth W, Moorbath S, 1988. Crustal contribution to arc magmatism in the Andes of central Chile. {Contr Mineral Petr}, 98: 455-489

Volcán Descabezado Grande is a late-Pleistocene to Holocene andesitic-to-rhyodacitic stratovolcano with a 1.4-km-wide ice-filled summit crater. Along with 3788-m-high Cerro Azul, only 7 km to the south, 3953-m-high Descabezado Grande lies at the center of a 20 x 30 km volcanic field. A lateral crater that formed on the upper NNE flank in 1932, shortly after the end of the major 1932 eruption from nearby Quizapu volcano on the north flank of Cerro Azul, was the site of the only historical eruption of Descabezado Grande. The Holocene Alto de las Mulas fissure on the lower NW flank of Descabezado Grande produced young rhyodacitic lava flows. Numerous small late-Pleistocene to Holocene volcanic centers are located north of the volcano. The northernmost of these, Lengua de Vulcano (or Mondaca) produced a very youthful rhyodacitic lava flow that dammed the Río Lentué.