The Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andean cordillera in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. It formed as a result of subduction of the Nazca Plate and Antarctic Plate underneath the South American Plate. The belt is subdivided into four main volcanic zones that are separated from each other by volcanic gaps. The volcanoes of the belt are diverse in terms of activity style, products and morphology. While some differences can be explained by which volcanic zone a volcano belongs to, there are significant differences within volcanic zones and even between neighboring volcanoes. Despite being a type location for calc-alkalic and subduction volcanism, the Andean Volcanic Belt has a large range of volcano-tectonic settings, such as rift systems and extensional zones, transpressional faults, subduction of mid-ocean ridges and seamount chains apart from a large range on crustal thicknesses and magma ascent paths, and different amount of crustal assimilations.
Romeral in Colombia is the northernmost member of the Andean Volcanic Belt. South of latitude 49° S within the Austral Volcanic Zone volcanic activity decreases with the southernmost volcano Fueguino in Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
Read more about Andean Volcanic Belt: Volcanic Zones, Volcanic Gaps, Back-arc Volcanism, Geothermal Activity
Famous quotes containing the words volcanic and/or belt:
“Pity the planet, all joy gone
from this sweet volcanic cone;”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“The shore is composed of a belt of smooth rounded white stones like paving-stones, excepting one or two short sand beaches, and is so steep that in many places a single leap will carry you into water over your head; and were it not for its remarkable transparency, that would be the last to be seen of its bottom till it rose on the opposite side. Some think it is bottomless.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)