Minchinmavida

The glacier-covered basaltic-to-andesitic Volcán Michinmahuida, located west of Lago Reñihue, has a saddle-shaped summit with an elongated 3-km-wide caldera. The massive edifice is elongated in a NE-SW direction, and a youthful eruptive center is located on the ENE side of the complex. A major explosive eruption at the beginning of the Holocene produced the Amarillo Ignimbrite that may have created the now ice-filled summit caldera, and Holocene tephra deposits from summit and flank vents have been identified. An eruption was reported in 1742, and Charles Darwin observed activity in 1834. The latest known eruption, February-March 1835, produced a lava flow from a flank crater and lahars that reached the coast at Punta Chana.