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Los Tuxtlas Volcanic Field (Mexico) – phreatomagmatic landforms of a monogenetic field in a complex tectonic setting

The still active part of the Los Tuxtlas Volcanic Field (LTVF), is located between the eastern edge of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) and the Central American Volcanic Belt (CAVA). The field stretches over 2400 square kilometers and includes ca 350 well preserved and another ca 200 less preserved volcanic edifices. In respect to phreatomagmatic eruptions, and thus related volcano-types, the LTVF is the most populated volcanic field in Mexico, and comparable to the densely maar-populated West-Eifel volcanic field in Germany with numbers around 70 to 90. Only 67 of these structures in the LTFV have been morphologically analyzed. About 21% of these contain a lake, while 70% are dry, and 9% are not maars but tuff cones. Only about 40% are simple structures, while the rest are either compound or complex.

The volcanic field, and hence the spatial distribution of its members is defined by a large NW-SE fault system, a compressional-strike slip regime and a central shield-like volcano. The high clustering of volcanoes in space together with the field evidence of contemporaneous emplacement of individual monogenetic volcanoes in form of compound (≥two volcanoes of the same kind, either maars or scoria cones) or complex systems (mixed scoria cone-maar constructs), together with morphological evidence shows that the monogenetic volcanoes are not only clustered in space, but also in time. Many of these volcano-clusters are only a few thousand years old. This fact, together with the abundance of phreatomagmatic eruptions in the field imply a considerable risk for the population.

Details

Author
Katrin Sieron1, Volker Lorenz2, Peter Suhr3
Institutionen
1LBGR, Germany; 2Wuerzburg University, Germany; 3Senckenberg Naturhistorische sammlungen Dresden, Germany
Veranstaltung
GeoSaxonia 2024
Datum
2024
DOI
10.48380/py0z-7q38