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Schematic Volcanic Sequence SW of the Active Crater
The exposed volcanic succession along the SW flank of Rincon de la Vieja suggests that early volcanism was dominated by voluminous non-explosive lava emissions, with explosive plinian-style eruptions becoming increasingly more dominant with time. The base of the volcano, including the Las Pailas geothermal site, consists primarily of lahar deposits. The lower to mid-slopes are comprised of thick andesitic lava flows, with interbedded tephra and lahar deposits. The summit region of the volcano consists primarily of thick, stacked tephra deposits.
Two carbon-14 radiometric ages help to constrain the stratigraphic package. Near the base of Group 2 a carbon root sample yielded an age of 27,000 ybp. The other age determination comes from an analysis by Melson (1985), dating the Rio Blanco tephra (Group 1) eruption at 3,500 ybp.
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