Tacana straddles the border between Guatemala's San Marcos Department and Mexico's Chiapas state in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, reaching an elevation of about 4,060 meters, the second-highest peak in Central America. It is a stratovolcano with a nine-kilometer-wide caldera whose elongated summit is dominated by several lava domes, built by subduction of the Cocos Plate beneath the Caribbean Plate as part of the Central America Volcanic Arc. Its most powerful known explosive eruption occurred around 70 AD, and its last recorded activity was a small phreatic eruption in May 1986; roughly 250,000 people live within reach of its hazards today. The volcano and its surrounding cloud forest are protected as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This entity documents Tacana specifically as a geological formation, a dome-studded stratovolcano on the Guatemala-Mexico border and the second-highest peak in Central America.
Facts
Classification
Protected StatusUNESCO Biosphere Reserve 1 Connections
Caused By
Source VolcanoDiscovery (data from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program): Tacaná Volcano
In Discipline
Source VolcanoDiscovery (data from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program): Tacaná Volcano
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. VolcanoDiscovery (data from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program): Tacaná Volcano
VolcanoDiscovery (data from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program)Volcano protected-area line
This volcano is located within the Volcan Tacana, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve property.
In Discipline: Volcanology, Volcano type line
Stratovolcano, Lava dome(s)
Caused By: Volcanism, Volcano type line
Stratovolcano, Lava dome(s)
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