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Cerro Negro | |
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![]() Cerro Negro on August 20, 2011 | |
Highest point | |
Elevation | 728 m (2,388 ft)[1] |
Coordinates | 12°30′22″N 86°42′07″W / 12.506°N 86.702°W[1] |
Geography | |
Location | León Department, Nicaragua |
Parent range | Cordillera de los Maribios |
Geology | |
Mountain type | Cinder cones |
Last eruption | August 1999 |
Cerro Negro is an active volcano in the Cordillera de los Maribios mountain range in Nicaragua, about 10 km (6.2 mi) from the village of Malpaisillo. It is a very new volcano, the youngest in Central America, having first appeared in April 1850. It consists of a gravelly basaltic cinder cone, which contrasts greatly with the surrounding verdant hillsides, and gives rise to its name, which means Black Hill. Cerro Negro has erupted frequently since its first eruption.[1] One unusual aspect of several eruptions has been the emission of ash from the top of the cone, while lava erupts from fractures at the base.
Cerro Negro is a polygenetic cinder cone that is part of the Central America Volcanic Arc, which formed as a result of the Cocos Plate subducting under the Caribbean Plate, at a rate of 9 cm (3.5 in) per year. It is the largest and southernmost of four cinder cones that have formed along a NW-SE trend line in the Cordillera de los Maribios mountain range. Despite its youth, Cerro Negro has been one of the most active volcanoes in Nicaragua, with its latest eruption occurring in 1999. Since its birth in 1850, it has erupted approximately 23 times.
Eruptive activity at Cerro Negro is characterized by explosive strombolian to subplinian eruptions driven by volatile-rich basaltic magma ascending rapidly from various crustal depths (>15 to 6 km) resulting in the onset of precursory activity only ∼30 min. before an eruption[2]. Volatile flux at Cerro Negro originates from the mantle and ascends to the surface via a series of crustal fractures that act as permeable conduits.[2] Despite the lack of new eruptions, the hydrothermal system of Cerro Negro continues to evolve due to seasonal inputs of meteoric water, slope failures that expose and bury sites of active degassing, and bursts of regional seismicity that have the potential to open up new conduits for gas release as well as magma.
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