Payún Matrú is a shield volcano in the Malargüe Department of the Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It lies in the back-arc region of the Andean Volcanic Belt, and was formed by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate. It consists of a large shield volcano capped by a caldera, formed during a major eruption between 168,000 and 82,000 years ago.
About Payún Matrú in brief
Payún Matrú is a shield volcano in the Malargüe Department of the Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It lies in the back-arc region of the Andean Volcanic Belt, and was formed by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate. It consists of a large shield volcano capped by a caldera, formed during a major eruption between 168,000 and 82,000 years ago. The Pleistocene Pampas Onduladas lava flow reaches a length of 167–181 km and is the world’s longest Quaternary lava flow. The active field is part of the backarc area of the Southern Volcanoic Zone, a 1,000 km long volcanic arc and one of four eruptive belts in the Andes. The volcano is within the Reserva Provincial La Payunia, which was included in the 2010 Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It has been proposed as a World Heritage Site since 2011. Other volcanoes in the region include the Laguna del Maule, almost due west from PayúnMatrú, and the Payun volcano. In local dialect, the term PayúN or Paium means “bearded”, while Matru translates as “goat”; the field is sometimes also known as Payenia. The area is inhospitable due to the lack of usable water and high elevation. However, there are many paved roads such as National Route 40 which passes west of the field, and National Route 186 which runs around its northern and eastern parts.
In the northern and southern walls are almost vertical; remnants of old crop and trachytic trachyes and volcanism are almost out of view. The highest peak is the 3,650 m-high NarizPunta del Payen, surrounded by several peaks, which clockwise from north include Punta del Punta Media, 3,450 m high Punta Sur and the approximately 3,700m- high Cerro Matru or Payen or Narro Maten. The lava domes and coulées predominate; these have often rough surfaces and are difficult to traverse. The lower slopes are more gentle and covered by Pleistolithic-Holocene lava flows. The calderA was once 8–9km wide but has reduced its size and buried the rim below the rim. The volcanoes are almost entirely vertical; the northern walls are vertical and crop and crop remnants are almost vertically out of sight. The shield volcano is a 15 km-wide shield volcano whose foot coincides with the 1,750 m elevation contour and which extends mainly east–west; rising about 2 km above the surrounding terrain it covers about 5,200 km2 of land with lava and has diverse landforms. It is one of the four eruptives belts of the Andes; the other three being the Northern Volcanics Zone, the Central VolcanIC Zone and the Austral Volcanian Zone.
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This page is based on the article Payún Matrú published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
