Tres Virgenes
Tres Virgenes is a complex of volcanoes located Mulegé Municipality in the state of Baja California Sur, on the Baja California Peninsula in northwestern Mexico. It is composed of three volcanoes, aligned northeast-southwest, with El Viejo, the oldest, to the northeast, El Azufre in the middle, and the youngest, El Virgen, to the southwest.
El Virgen, being by far the most conspicuous of the three, is commonly known as "Las Tres Vírgenes".
The last eruption of the volcanoes in the complex was of El Virgen, but the date is disputed. A map drawn by the Croatian Jesuit missionary Ferdinand Konščak contains a reference to an eruption in 1746.[1] Radiometric datings, however, do not agree with this. A charcoal fragment found in a volcanic deposit was dated at approximately 6515 years before present.[2] A basaltic lava flow, which must be younger than the actual eruption, was dated at approximately 24 thousand years B.P.[3] which agrees with a dating of tephra fragments from El Virgen that yielded an age of approximately 36 thousand years B.P. for the eruption.[4]
[edit] See also
- Volcanoes of east-central Baja California
- List of volcanoes in Mexico
- Mountain peaks of México
- Mountain peaks of North America
[edit] References
- ^ Ives, Ronald, Dating of the 1746 Eruption of Tres Virgenes Volcano, Baja California Del Sur, Mexico, Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 73, pp. 647-648, May 1962.
- ^ Capra et al., Holocene plinian eruption of La Virgen Volcano, Baja California, Mexico, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Issue 80 pp. 239–266, 1998.
- ^ Hausback and Abrams, Plinian eruption of La Virgen Tephra, Volcán Las Tres Virgenes, Baja California Sur, Mexico, American Geophysical Union, Issue 77, pp. 813–814, 1996.
- ^ Schmitt et al., Eruption and magma crystallization ages of Las Tres Vírgenes (Baja California) constrained by combined 230Th/238U and (U–Th)/He dating of zircon, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Issue 158, pp. 281–295, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Global Volcanism Program: Tres Virgenes
- Tres Virgenes Volcanic Complex
- Hike to the top of Tres Vírgenes (Part 1)
- Hike to the top of Tres Vírgenes (Part 2)
Coordinates: 27°28′11″N 112°35′28″W / 27.46972°N 112.59111°W
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