Abstract
THE third number of the Boletin del Cuerpo de Ingenieros de Minas del Peru (Lima, 1903), by Francisco Alayza y Paz-Soldán, director of the survey, raises several matters of general interest to geologists. It deals with the districts of Moquegua and Tacna, including some striking volcanic i country between the Andes and the coast. The terrific eruption of Huainaputina in 1600 has left its traces in immense deposits of scoriæ across the adjacent country; the crater of the mountain was completely blown away, and a barrier was formed by the ejected blocks, strong enough to convert the Tambo River for twenty-eight hours into a lake. Part of the devastation was due to the,bursting of this barrier, and the phenomena of earthquake and explosion justify the ranking of this catastrophe among the greatest in the human period. Since 1600 the volcano has become completely extinct. Its northern neighbour, Ubinas, on the same line of activity, is, however, looked on with suspicion, and still emits vapours, accompanied by a continuous roaring. These emanations have kaolinised the felspars in the surrounding lavas, and have formed, alums, anhydrite, arid sulphur near the vent. Though the Jast eruption, about which little is recorded, took place in 1662, it was of cataclysmic magnitude, and the author points out that repetitions may reasonably be expected.
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C., G. Geological Studies in Peru . Nature 69, 500 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/069500a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/069500a0