Guagua Pichincha stratovolcano rises immediately to the west of Ecuador's capital city, Quito. A small lava dome is located at the head of a 6-km-wide breached caldera, which is out of view beyond the horizon in this photo. The caldera formed during a late-Pleistocene slope failure about 50,000 years ago. Many minor eruptions have occurred since the Spanish era; the volcano's largest historical eruption in 1660 deposited 30 cm of ash on Quito.

Photo by Minard Hall, 1982 (Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito).

This image is made available under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license terms.

Guagua Pichincha