San Pedro de Tarara

The San Pedro-Pellado volcanic complex (also known as San Pedro-Tatara) has been active from the Pliocene to the Holocene. The Tatara-San Pedro edifice overlies the deeply eroded Pellado stratovolcano; both were constructed within the 6 x 12 km Río Colorado caldera, which formed during an eruption about 0.5 million years ago. The Tatara basaltic andesite shield volcano at the western end of the complex contains stacked sequences of up to 100 or more lava flows forming up to 1500 m of relief. The glacier-filled summit crater of the 3621-m-high dominantly andesitic San Pedro stratovolcano, which overlies the Tatara edifice, contains a young scoria cone that was the site of the most recent eruptions. A major Holocene E-flank debris avalanche filled the Río de la Puente valley to the south and was followed by eruptions originating within the avalanche scarp low on the east flank that produced lava flows down the Estero Pellado drainage. No historical eruptions have been recorded, but fumaroles are found SE of Pellado.