Calabozos

Calabozos
Calabozos The South American country of Chile
Highest point
Elevation	3,508 m (11,509 ft)[1]
Coordinates	35°33′30″S 70°29′47″W / 35.55833°S 70.49639°W / -35.55833; -70.49639[2]
Geography
Location	Central Chile
Parent range	Andes
Geology
Age of rock	Pleistocene
Mountain type	Caldera
Volcanic belt	Andean Volcanic Belt
Last eruption	Unknown[2]

Calabozos is a Holocene caldera in central Chile's Maule Region (7th Region). Part of the Chilean Andes' volcanic segment, it is considered a member of the Southern Volcanic Zone (SVZ), one of the three distinct volcanic belts of South America. This most active section of the Andes runs along central Chile's western edge, and includes more than 70 of Chile's stratovolcanoes and volcanic fields. Calabozos lies in an extremely remote area of poorly glaciated mountains.

Calabozos and the majority of the Andean volcanoes formed from the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate under the continental South American continental lithosphere. The caldera is in a transitional region between thick and thin lithosphere, and is probably supplied by a pool of andesitic and rhyolitic magma. It sits on a historic bed of volcanic and plutonic sedimentary rock (rock formed within the Earth) that in turn sits on top of a layer of merged sedimentary and metamorphic rock.

Calabozos is responsible for the huge Loma Seca Tuff, a body of material 200 cubic kilometres (48 cu mi) to 500 cubic kilometres (120 cu mi) in volume. It accumulated over at least three eruptive periods, beginning 800,000 years ago (0.8 mya) and lasting until 150,000 years ago (0.15 mya).

The caldera's dimensions are 26 kilometres (16 mi) by 14 kilometres (8.7 mi), and it has an elevation of 3,508 metres (11,509 ft).^[2] Activity from the caldera has produced many other stratovolcanoes to form a complex volcano.^[2]