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La Pacana caldera |
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| Synonyms: None | ||
| Location: 23º10'S; 67º25'W | ||
| Country: Chile/Bolivia | ||
| Average/Max Elevation: 4500m/4905m | ||
| Caldera Diam.: 70km x 35km | ||
| ~Volume: ~15,000 cub. km | ||
| Age Range: 5.6 to 1 Ma |
The La Pacana Complex
The La Pacana Complex (LPC),is the largest of the caldera complexes in the APVC. It covers an area of ~17,000 km2 in N. Chile, SW Bolivia and NW Argentina, and consists of three major ignimbrite centres, which overlap temporally, spatially and structurally. Hot springs are found throughout the complex.
Of the three centres, the most important is the eponymous La Pacana caldera (23º10'S; 67º25'W), a 70 by 35 km caldera depression (average elevation 4,000 m) with a complex topographic outline. The caldera was first described by Gardeweg & Ramirez (1987), who concluded that it formed ~4 Ma ago by eruption of ~1,500 km3 of the Atana ignimbrite. The outflow ignimbrite can be correlated over several thousands of square kilometers of N. Chile, SW Bolivia and NW Argentina (Francis and Baker, 1978; de Silva & Francis, 1989). A large thickness of ignimbrite accumulated in the caldera depression during the eruption which was followed by the resurgence of the caldera floor to form the Cerros de La Pacana (4,905 m), an elongate resurgent block ~50 x 12 km characterised by antiformally-dipping, densely welded ignimbrite and an apical graben complex.
