Global Volcanism Program

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Floreana.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Floreana.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Floreana.

This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive. Features are organized into four major categories: Cones, Craters, Domes, and Thermal Features. Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided.

Synonyms

Santa Maria | Charles

Cones

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Caldwell Island

Tuff cone

Champion Island

Tuff cone

Cormorant Point

Tuff cone

Enderby Island

Tuff cone

Gemelos, Cerro de los

Cone

Olympus, Mount
Wittmerberg

Cone

Pajas, Cerro de

Cone

640 m

Ritter

Cone

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

353805

Pleistocene

640 m / 2,100 ft

1.3°S
90.45°W

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Shield

Volcano Types
Shield
Caldera
Pyroclastic cone(s)

Tectonic Setting

Rift zone
Oceanic crust (< 15 km)

Geological Summary

The low shield volcano of Floreana Island, also known as Charles Island or Santa María Island, is densely covered with cinder cones. A 5-km-wide caldera at the center of the island has an irregular floor. Several young lava flows were considered to have been as young as few thousand or even a few centuries old based on their youthful morphology (McBirney and Williams, 1969), but a surface exposure age of 26 ± 7 ka was obtained on the youngest flow (Kurz and Geist, 1999). An 1813 eruption attributed to Floreana in the Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World is considered to have actually occurred at Sierra Negra volcano on Isabela Island (Simkin 1980, pers. comm.). The most conspicuous of the cinder cones on the island is Cerro de Pajas, which rises 335 m above its surroundings. It fed a massive pahoehoe lava flow, perhaps the youngest on Floreana, that reached the SW coast over a broad 6.5 km area.

This volcano is located within the Archipiélago de Colón (Galápagos), a UNESCO World Heritage property.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior.

Kurz M D, Geist D, 1999. Dynamics of the Galapagos hotspot from helium isotope geochemistry. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 63: 4139-4156.

McBirney A R, Williams H, 1969. Geology and petrology of the Galapagos Islands. Geol Soc Amer Mem, 118: 1-197.

Richards A F, 1962. Archipelago de Colon, Isla San Felix and Islas Juan Fernandez. Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields, Rome: IAVCEI, 14: 1-50.

Simkin T, 1980. (pers. comm.).

Simkin T, 1984. Geology of Galapagos Islands. In: Perry R (ed) Galapagos, Oxford: Pergamon, p 15-41.

White W M, McBirney A R, Duncan R A, 1993. Petrology and geochemistry of the Galapagos Islands: Portrait of a pathological mantle plume. J. Geophys. Res, 98: 19,533-19,563.

Eruptive History

The Global Volcanism Program is not aware of any Holocene eruptions from Floreana. If this volcano has had large eruptions (VEI >= 4) prior to 12,000 years ago, information might be found on the Floreana page in the LaMEVE (Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions) database, a part of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

Deformation History

There is no Deformation History data available for Floreana.

Emission History

There is no Emissions History data available for Floreana.

Photo Gallery

A sparsely vegetated lava flow appears in the foreground below Cerro Pajas, one of the more than 50 cinder cones dotting Floreana Island. Several young lava flows on Floreana, also known as Charles Island or Santa María Island, were considered due to their morphology to be Holocene, but Pleistocene surface exposure ages were obtained. Cerro Pajas, the most conspicuous of the cinder cones on the island, fed a massive pahoehoe lava flow that reached the SW coast over a broad 6.5 km area.

Photo by Carlos Pullinger, 1996 (Servicio Nacional de Estudios Territoriales, El Salvador).

Floreana Island (also known as Charles Island or Santa María Island) is a broad shield volcano whose surface is densely covered with cinder cones. The most conspicuous of these is Cerro de Pajas, seen here from the north with a spatter cone in the right foreground. A massive pahoehoe lava flow from Cerro de Pajas, perhaps the youngest on Floreana, reached the SW coast over a broad 6.5 km area. The youngest lava flow on Floreana, once thought to be Holocene, has a late Pleistocene surface exposure age.

Photo by Ed Vicenzi, 2002 (Smithsonian Institution).

GVP Map Holdings

Maps are not currently available due to technical issues.

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Floreana in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.

External Sites

Copernicus Browser

The Copernicus Browser replaced the Sentinel Hub Playground browser in 2023, to provide access to Earth observation archives from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the main distribution platform for data from the EU Copernicus missions.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

GVMID Data on Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure The Global Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure Database GVMID, is aimed at documenting and improving capabilities of volcano monitoring from the ground and space. GVMID should provide a snapshot and baseline view of the techniques and instrumentation that are in place at various volcanoes, which can be use by volcano observatories as reference to setup new monitoring system or improving networks at a specific volcano. These data will allow identification of what monitoring gaps exist, which can be then targeted by remote sensing infrastructure and future instrument deployments.

IRIS seismic stations/networks

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Floreana. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Floreana. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

Large Eruptions of Floreana

Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).