When a tourist arrives for the first time to the city of Arequipa, their sight and admiration is captivated by the Chachani, Misti and Pichu Pichu volcanoes, huge massifs that rise up in the north, northeast and east sectors of the city, sheltering more than 1 million people who have chosen the valley of the Chili River as the ideal place to settle and raise their families.
Between these volcanoes, one of them undoubtedly attracts the most attention: El Misti. Whether due to its symmetrical conical shape or its imposing and challenging elevation, El Misti is, without discussion, the best known volcano in Peru.
A Young Volcano With the Most Important Eruptive Activity
El Misti is approximately 112,000 years old. It is a stratovolcano formed by the successive accumulation of lava flows and pyroclastic sequences.
In the last 50,000 years, the Misti has registered at least 12 volcanic eruptions, whose expelled products have been deposited in large part in the area that is now occupied by the city of Arequipa.
One of these eruptions, which occurred 2,000 years ago, has been classified as one of the most important in southern Peru.
This eruption reached a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 5, on a scale that goes from 0 to 8. The products emitted in this eruption were deposited mainly in the southwestern sector of the volcano, where the city of Arequipa is located today.
This great eruption also produced pyroclastic flows that ran through ravines in the northeast, southwest, and west sectors of the Misti.
The last eruptive process of the Misti volcano was recorded in the 15th century, at the time of the Inca Pachacútec.
This eruption, according to the historical chronicles and the study of ash deposits and other volcanic products, would have been characterized by presenting moderate explosive activity, accompanied by the emission of volcanic ash.