Villarrica looms above
the expensive hotels in the tourist
town of Pucon. Fig. 2.1
Location:
Volcan Villarrica is situated in the Andes mountains in
the lake region of south-central Chile, near the lake
of the same name and the popular tourist town of Pucon.
More exactly, it is located at 39.25 S, 71.42 W⁴
. The area is a mecca for sport adventurers, offering
all sorts of outdoor activities, including whitewater
rafting and kayaking, fly fishing, windsurfing and
alpine skiing, to name a few. There are also
opportunities to summit the volcano, which lies in a
national park, or even take a helicopter ride to check
out the crater from the air.
Map of Chile, with Villarrica in
the South Central region of Araucania.
Check out this video to get a sense
of the area:
Vid. 2.1
Tectonic Setting:
Villarrica is an almost
perfectly conical stratovolcano located in the Central
Southern Volcanic Zone (CSVZ) in the Southern Andes.
The volcano is the westernmost of a change of volcanoes
that runs perpendicular to the main Andes range. In this
region, the Nazca plate is subducting beneath the South
American plate, which causes the volcanism of the region.
Because Villarrica is the product of a subduction zone,
it is capable of producing large, explosive eruptions
which have been recorded to reach up to a VEI of 5, although in recent decades it has
mostly produced minor to moderate Strombolian style
eruptions. Villarrica
produces a wide range of lavas, from basaltic to
andesitic, which accounts for these shifts in eruption
style. ⁵
Villarrica is unique in that it is one of only a few
volcanoes in the world that has an active lava lake in
its crater. The volcano also has many parasitic cones on
its flanks and the surrounding countryside contains many
volcanic hot springs.⁸
