Tupungatito

Tupungatito is the northernmost historically active volcano in the Chilean Andes, marking the northern boundary of the Southern Andean Volcanic Arc.

All 20 of Tupungatito's recorded eruptions have been VEI 2 or below — an unusually consistent pattern of mild explosive activity among Andean stratovolcanoes.

Between 1958 and 1968, Tupungatito erupted seven times in a single decade, one of the most concentrated clusters of activity at any central Andean volcano.

The volcano's 12 Holocene craters are nested within the 4-km-wide Pleistocene Nevado Sin Nombre caldera, which is partially filled by glaciers at its southern end.

Tupungatito lies just 7 km southwest of Tupungato (6,570 m), one of the highest peaks in the Americas, though the two are separate volcanic systems.

Santiago, Chile's capital with over 7 million residents, lies approximately 90 km west of Tupungatito, within potential ashfall range from a significant eruption.

The trans-Andean highway connecting Santiago and Mendoza passes within 40 km of the volcano, a critical commercial corridor that could be disrupted by lahars or ashfall.

Glacial lahars are Tupungatito's most dangerous potential hazard — the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz disaster demonstrated the lethal power of eruption-triggered ice melt at a similar Andean volcano.

The nearly four-decade repose since 1987 is the longest gap in Tupungatito's 190-year recorded history, though it falls within the range of normal inter-eruption pauses for Andean volcanoes.

Tupungatito's andesitic magma composition places it in the same hazard category as other deadly Andean volcanoes like Nevado del Ruiz and Cotopaxi.