Villarrica: the Andes peak with a lake of lava in its throat
Rising above the lakeside town of Pucón in southern Chile, Villarrica is one of only a handful of volcanoes on Earth you can hike to and look straight down into a pool of molten rock. It is also one of Chile's most relentless — our records hold 162 eruptions— and in September 2026 Chile's geological survey raised it to a Yellow alert as the lava lake climbed toward the surface.
By VolcanoDB Research Team. Data: Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program (Villarrica, id 1370) and SERNAGEOMIN. Live status verified Nov 6, 2026.
What you're actually looking at: an open lava lake
Most volcanoes hide their magma. Villarrica doesn't. Inside its summit crater sits an intermittent lava lake — a churning pond of molten rock around 1,250 °C that rises and falls with the gas and magma feeding it. On a clear night the crater glows orange, and the summit climb from Pucón exists precisely so people can stand on the rim and watch it. Only about eight volcanoes worldwide keep a persistent lava lake, which puts Villarrica in the same tiny club as Nyiragongo and Erebus.
The Mapuche people called it Rucapillán— "house of the spirit." At 2,847 m it dominates the skyline of Chile's Lake District, about 750 km south of Santiago, and it is watched around the clock by the national geological survey, SERNAGEOMIN. You can see where it sits among the world's restless volcanoes on our active volcanoes tracker and erupting-now dashboard.
Why a stratovolcano behaves like Hawaii
Villarrica has the textbook cone of a stratovolcano, and those are usually the explosive ones — think Vesuvius or Pinatubo. Villarrica is the exception, and the reason is its chemistry. It erupts fluid basalt rather than sticky andesite, so gas escapes in steady bubbles instead of building up to a catastrophic blast. That fluidity is what lets the lava lake stay open and drives its typical, almost rhythmic Strombolian fountaining — the same behaviour that makes Stromboli so predictable.
Our eruption database shows the consequence in one picture. Across Villarrica's 162 recorded eruptions, 106 rate VEI 2— a mild, ordinary size — and only a single eruption in the whole Holocene record reached VEI 5. For a peak this busy, that is a strikingly gentle profile: Villarrica erupts often and small, almost never big. Compare that with the explosive andesite volcanoes elsewhere on the Ring of Fire.
How Villarrica's 152 size-rated eruptions break down by Volcanic Explosivity Index. Select a bar to see what that size means.
Explosive — ash plumes reaching 1–5 km, localized impact.
Of Villarrica's 152 size-rated eruptions on record, the most common was VEI 2 (106 of 152, 70%). It is strikingly consistent, erupting at close to the same size again and again. The largest on record reached VEI 5.
Based on the Smithsonian GVP eruption record. This describes Villarrica's past eruptions only — it does not predict future activity. What is the VEI? · Most explosive volcanoes
The danger isn't the lava — it's the ice
Here is the twist that catches people out. The glowing lava lake is the attraction, but it is not what has killed at Villarrica. The volcano carries a glacier near its summit, and when an eruption melts that ice the meltwater races down the river valleys as a lahar — a fast, concrete-like flood of mud and boulders that can travel tens of kilometres from the cone.
Villarrica's worst disasters were lahars, not lava. The 1964 eruption sent lahars into the village of Coñaripe and killed about 27 people; the 1971–72 eruption killed at least 15 more. Even the dramatic March 3, 2015eruption — a pre-dawn lava fountain that lit up the sky over Pucón — was dangerous less for its fireworks than for the lahar risk it created; Chilean authorities evacuated about 3,385 people and declared a red alert within 10 km. It is why the Early Preventive Alert issued in September 2026 names the valley communes, not just the mountain.
Source: Smithsonian GVP (Villarrica, 357120) and SERNAGEOMIN. Full data: /1370/Villarrica.
Climbing Villarrica from Pucón
When the alert is low, the summit climb is Pucón's signature adventure: a guided ascent on snow and ice — crampons, ice axe, and a hard hat against falling cinders — to peer over the rim at the lava. It takes most of a day and no technical climbing experience, but it is a real mountaineering effort and strictly guide-only. In winter (roughly July–September) a small ski area runs on the northern flank.
The catch is the alert level. The moment SERNAGEOMIN moves Villarrica off Green — as it did in September 2026 — operators suspend summit climbs, and that can happen with little notice. Check the current SERNAGEOMIN alert and your guide's permit before you book, and have a plan B: Chile's Lake District is ringed with other peaks, including the volcanoes covered in our guide to volcanoes in Chile and nearby Nevados de Chillán.
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Villarrica, quick answers
Is Villarrica erupting right now?
Villarrica is persistently active rather than in a single big eruption. It carries an intermittent lava lake in its summit crater, and through 2024–2026 that lake has waxed and waned with ordinary Strombolian bursts. On September 4–7, 2026, Chile's geological survey SERNAGEOMIN raised the technical alert from Green to Yellow after seismic and surface activity picked up and the lava lake rose toward the surface; SENAPRED declared an Early Preventive Alert for Pucón, Villarrica, Curarrehue and Panguipulli. The summit stays closed to climbers while that alert holds.
Why does Villarrica have a lava lake when most stratovolcanoes don't?
Because its magma is basaltic. Most stratovolcanoes erupt sticky andesite that plugs the vent and blasts apart; Villarrica erupts fluid basalt that lets gas bubble out gently, the same physics that keeps a lava lake open at Hawaii's Kīlauea or Nyiragongo. That's why Villarrica behaves far more mildly than its cone shape suggests — in our database, 106 of its 162 recorded eruptions are a modest VEI 2.
What's the most dangerous thing about Villarrica?
Not the lava — the ice. Villarrica wears a glacier, and when an eruption melts it the meltwater sweeps down river valleys as a lahar, a fast slurry of mud and rock. Villarrica's deadliest events were lahars: the 1964 eruption buried part of Coñaripe and killed 27 people, and the 1971–72 eruption killed at least 15. The glowing crater is the draw, but the valleys below are where the volcano has actually taken lives.
Can you climb Villarrica from Pucón?
In normal times, yes — a guided crampons-and-ice-axe climb from Pucón to the 2,847 m crater rim to look down at the lava is one of South America's classic volcano hikes, and a ski resort runs on the north slope in winter (July–September). But climbs are suspended whenever SERNAGEOMIN raises the alert, as it did in September 2026. Always confirm the current alert and your operator's permit before booking.
Continue exploring
Climbed Villarrica recently, or watched the crater from Pucón? Tell us what the lava lake was doing and what alert level your guide was working to — we keep this page current from reader reports and SERNAGEOMIN bulletins.