Parícutin Volcano

Parícutin is an 80 years old small-volume volcano that consists of a pristine 424-meter-high scoria cone and a 25 square kilometer lava flow field that formed during a 9-year eruption (1943-1952). The evolution of the volcano has been divided into four stages (Luhr and Simkin, 1993). The first two stages (1943-1945) are related to the main growth episodes when the cone almost reached its present-day height, and the lavas attained their maximum distance from the vent (4 kilometers). These stages consisted of violent Strombolian activity with high gas and ash columns and the birth of a subsidiary vent that fed abundant lava. Parícutin emitted at least 23 distinct lava flows and a widespread ash blanket. The calc-alkaline composition of its rocks is related to the active subduction of the oceanic Cocos plate beneath the North American continent along the Middle America Trench. The volcanic products vary from olivine-bearing andesitic basalt to orthopyroxene-bearing andesite (McBirney et al., 1987; Cebriá et al., 2011). Nonetheless, a recent geochemical study indicates that compositional variability can be explained by mantle source heterogeneity and fractional crystallization (Larrea et al., 2019).