Portal:Chile/Selected article/6

Puyehue and Cordón Caulle are two coalesced volcanic vents that form a major mountain massif in Puyehue National Park in the Andes of El Ranco Province, Chile. In volcanology this group is known under the name of Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex and hence also by the acronym PCCVC. Four different volcanoes constitute the volcanic group or complex, the Cordillera Nevada caldera, the Pliocene Mencheca volcano, Cordón Caulle fissure vents and the Puyehue stratovolcano. As with most stratovolcanoes on the Southern Volcanic Zone of the Andes Puyehue and Cordón Caulle are located along the intersection of a NW–SE fault with the larger N–S Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault. The volcanic complex has shaped the landscape around and produced a huge variery of volcanic landforms and products over the last 300 ka. Cinder cones, lava domes, calderas and maars can be found in the area apart from the widest variety of volcanic rocks in all the Southern Volcanic Zone and Chile, for example both MgO-rich basalts and rhyolites.

Apart from this, the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle area is one of the main sites of geothermal exploration in Chile. Geothermal activity is manifested on the surface of Puyehue and Cordón Caulle as several hot springs and geysers. Cordón Caulle is also notable for having erupted following the 9.5 Mw 1960 Valdivia earthquake the largest recorded earthquake in history.