Nevado de Toluca | Universe Today

Written by Fraser Cain

Nevado de Toluca is a complex andesitic-dacitic stratovolcano located about 80 km west of Mexico City near the city of Toluca. It's considered Mexico's 4th highest peak. The peak of Nevado de Toluca rises to an elevation of 4,680 meters. The top of the volcano is a 1.5 km-wide summit caldera, and there are two crater lakes on the floor of the caldera basin.

Nevado de Toluca is a dormant volcano, which hasn't erupted since detailed records have been kept. It had at least three major edifice collapses in the Pleistocene era (11,000 to 1.8 million years ago). The evidence for these collapses are the vast debris fields that surround the volcano. There were also two more Pelean eruptions in the Pleistocene era that spewed out ashes and pyroclastic flows. The most recent eruption was thought to be about 3,300 years ago, which produced pyroclastic flows and surges. A major eruption about 10,000 years ago blasted out 14 cubic kilometers of material, with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6 – the same as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

A road runs up the mountain into the caldera to the lakes. This makes Nevado de Toluca an easily accessible mountain for climbers. The two large lakes, Laguna de la Luna and Laguna del Sol are easy to access, and have nice hiking trails around them. There's even a state-run hiking hut located at 4,050 meters. It's best climbed during Mexico's dry season, between November-March.

We have written many article about volcanoes for Universe Today. Here's an article about other volcanoes in Mexico, and here's an article about famous volcanoes around the world.

Want more resources on the Earth? Here's a link to NASA's Human Spaceflight page, and here's NASA's Visible Earth.

We have also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast about Earth, as part of our tour through the Solar System – Episode 51: Earth.

Filed under: Astronomy