Yucamane

Geography & Climate

Yucamane is located in Peru, within the Central Andean Volcanic Arc of the broader South America Volcanic Regions. Situated at 17.18° S, 70.20° W in the Southern Hemisphere, the volcano lies within a tropical climate zone. At 5,495 meters above sea level, Yucamane reaches well into the permanent snow and ice zone. Glaciers and snowpack on the upper slopes create the potential for lahars — destructive volcanic mudflows — during eruptions, as heat rapidly melts ice and snow. The volcanic landform is characterized as a composite, which describes the physical shape and structure of the volcanic edifice as observed from the surface.

Geological Context

Yucamane sits in a subduction zone, where one tectonic plate dives beneath another, creating intense heat and pressure that generates magma. Subduction zones are responsible for many of the world's most explosive volcanoes and deadliest eruptions. For communities in Peru near Yucamane, this tectonic setting means the volcano is capable of producing powerful explosive eruptions, pyroclastic flows, and lahars that can threaten populated areas within tens of kilometers of the summit. The dominant rock type is andesite / basaltic andesite, a dark, fine-grained volcanic rock that forms from rapidly cooling, low-viscosity lava. Basaltic eruptions tend to be less explosive and produce fluid lava flows that can travel long distances. While less immediately dangerous than explosive eruptions, basaltic lava flows can destroy structures and infrastructure in their path, and volcanic gases released during these eruptions can affect air quality over a wide area.

Eruption History Summary

Yucamane has 1 recorded eruption in the geological database, spanning from 1320 BCE to 1320 BCE. The most powerful recorded event was a paroxysmal eruption with devastating regional consequences in 1320 BCE, reaching VEI 5 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.

Significance

With a maximum recorded VEI of 5, Yucamane has demonstrated the capacity for paroxysmal eruptions comparable to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Eruptions of this scale can devastate areas within 20-30 kilometers and produce ash fall that disrupts aviation and agriculture across hundreds of kilometers.

GVP Reference Summary

Volcán Yucamane lies at the south end of a group of three volcanoes known as the Caliente-Yucamane Volcanic Complex; both it and Cerro Caliente to the north display evidence of postglacial lava flows, which overlie thick moraines. The andesitic Yucamane has a youthful, well-preserved summit crater. Late-Pleistocene and Holocene eruptions have produced airfall deposits, pyroclastic flows and surges, and block-and-ash flows produced by growth and collapse of lava domes. The most recent confirmed eruption, a subplinian event, took place about 3000-3300 radiocarbon years ago. Historical eruptions originally attributed to the more dissected Tutupaca during the 18th-20th centuries (Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World) were considered by de Silva and Francis (1990) to have more likely been from Yucamane, but later authors (eg. Samaniego et al. 2015) assigned them to Tutupaca, including an eruption of uncertain character reported in 1787 (Volcanological Society of Japan, 1971). Ongoing fieldwork has not found deposits younger than the 3000 BP event (Samaniego, 2015).

— Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program