Cuilapa-Barbarena

The Cuilapa-Barbarena volcanic field contains approximately 70 Quaternary cinder cones, generally less than 100 m high. Many of the mostly basaltic cones are located along the strike of the major regional Jalpatagua fault, which extends SE from Guatemala City, north of the chain of stratovolcanoes stretching across Guatemala. The cones were erupted from fracture systems related to the intersection of the Jalpatagua fault with the southern and western margins of the Miocene Santa Rosa de Lima caldera, and overlie pyroclastic-flow deposits from Amatitlán caldera to the NW. The age of the most recent eruptions is not known, although the youngest cones post-date the last phase of eruptive activity at Tecuamburro volcano and could be Holocene (Reynolds, 1987). Williams (1960) considered the most recent eruptions to have occurred within the last few thousand years.