Boqueron, El Salvador

Location: 13.73N, 89.29 W
Elevation: 6,209 ft (1,893 m).

Boqueron is gently sloping stratovolcano with a crater at its summit. This crater is 1,640 ft. (500 m) deep and 4,920 ft. (1,500m) wide. Boqueron grew within the collapsed caldera of an old volcano called San Salvador. The rim of San Salvador is about 4,264 ft (1,300 m) above sea level. Ash and lahar materials alternate with lavas in the walls of the Boqueron crater. A 328 ft. (100 m) thick ash layer divides crater wall into upper and lower series of lava flows. A 98 ft. (30 m) high cinder cone has grown at the bottom of Boqueron's summit crater.

Volcanic activity occurred on the north and northeast sides of the Boqueron after the crater formed. More recently flank eruptions have formed two chains of cinder cones. Borqueron's most recent activity started on June 6, 1917. A large earthquake occurred and fissures opened to the north to release a flow of black vesicular andesite lava. On June 10, 1917, the lake inside the crater began to boil and totally evaporated by June 28. Ash and cinder eruptions continued in the crater until November of that year.

Other Local Volcanoes:

Sources of Information:

Fairbrothers, Gregg E. et al, "Temporal Magmatic Variation at Boqueron Volcano El Salvador," Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 67, 1-9, 1978.



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