Ampato

Ampato (possibly from Quechua hamp'atu or from Aymara jamp'atu, both meaning "frog") is a dormant stratovolcano in the Andes of southern Peru. It lies about northwest of Arequipa and is part of a north-south chain that includes the volcanoes Hualca Hualca and Sabancaya, the last of which has been active in historical time. Ampato consists of three volcanic cones, which lie on top of an older eroded volcanic edifice. They were formed sequentially by extrusion of lava flows, but Ampato has also had explosive eruptions which have deposited ash, lapilli and pumice in the surrounding landscape. One young lava flow has been dated to 17,000 ± 6,000 years before present, but a summit lava dome is even younger, and Holocene ash layers in surrounding peat bogs may testify to the occurrence of recent eruptions. The present-day volcano is covered by an ice cap, and during the last glacial maximum glaciers advanced to low altitudes. In 1995, an Inca mummy known as Mummy Juanita was discovered on Ampato by Johan Reinhard; it had been offered as a human sacrifice more than six hundred years earlier on the mountain. Ampato lies south of the Colca Canyon and at the southern end of a chain of volcanoes formed by Hualca Hualca and Sabancaya, the last of which has been historically active. Clockwise from northeast the towns of Colihuiri, Cajamarcana, Sallalli, Japo, Baylillas, Corinta and Collpa surround the volcano; the city of Arequipa lies to the southeast. Ampato is part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, which in Peru manifests itself as several dozen Pleistocene volcanoes, some of which erupted in historical time including El Misti, Huaynaputina, Sabancaya and Ubinas. The largest historical eruption of the Andes took place at Huaynaputina. Other volcanoes in the Peruvian Central Volcanic Zone are Sara Sara, Solimana, Coropuna, Chachani, Ticsani, Tutupaca, Yucamane and Casiri. The volcano Ampato consists of three individual steep-sided cones which rise from a gentle glacially eroded foot.