Huayna'Putina volcano is a small volcano, with a maximum elevation of 4,800m, and a edifice height of no more than 500m, in a volcanic upland located in Southern Peru, Moquegua region, 80 km (50 mi) South East of Arequipa (capital and largest city of the Arequipa region and the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru).
This volcano has been variously known as Omate, Quinistaquillas, Chuiquimote, and Ceque'Puquina.
Hayna'Putina's name came from "Misti" a volcano in Arequipa, which was called "Putina" at the time. In Quechua language "Pu"is the root word of "Blow" and "i" indicate the first person, so its name refers to its prolific fumaroles. The other part relates to Huayna Capac, the mighty one. He was the emperor under whom the Inca empire reached its peak, just time before the European explorers arrived in the area. He died because of the invasion he had not yet seen, in the smallpox epidemic which preceded the arrival of many europeans with the sole purpose of taking over the land. A century later, when the eruption occurred, the whole area was deeply Spanish.
The mountain resides within a horseshoe shaped crater (2.5 km /2 mi in width) older explosive caldera that was deepened by glacial erosion, 26 km South of Ubinas volcano. The volcano is part of the Central Volcanic Zone, the segment of the Andes through Peru and Chile, that is unusually thick and the volcanoes that occur inside differ from the rest of the Andean edifices.
Hayna'Putina is remarkably situated on the Western rim of the canyon on the Tambo River, which is more than 2 km deep immediately below the volcano. To the West, a roughly rectangular plateau of ash has buried the local pre-eruption topography over an area of about 50 km2.
The volcano's Eastern edge's caldera has been excavated along centuries by the Tambo on the Andean slopes and tapers off into a gorge, flowing through Moquegua and the High Plateau) of Puno, crashing through the deep canyon in South Arequipa. The Tambo enters the vertical canyon with a right wall formed by the Huayna'Putina (4,806 m) and a left wall formed by Aromayo mountain (4,000m) forming a 6-meter falls. The river is able to increase its volume by 50 times or more when heavy rains falls in the region. The name refers to a relatively short section, about 159 km/ 99 mi long in which three separated fluvial ecosystems runs in its valley: fresh water in the upper course, saline water in the middle and the area of mixed saline and fresh water.
The knowledge of the variable thickness of the basins is fundamental to deciphering their implications in the structural architecture of the evolution of the Sub-Andean zone deformation. Subduction of the Eastern edge of the Nazca Plate under the Western edge of the South American Plate takes place about 160 km (99mi) West of Peru and Chile, at a rate of 9 to 11 cm (4 in) per year. The process produced the formation of Peru-Chile Trench, an oceanic trench in the Pacific Ocean (the largest and deepest of Earth's oceanic division). It also produced the Andean Volcanic Belt along Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and the rest of the Andes. The mountains Ticsani, Ubinas and Huayna'Putina in Moquegua, sit on a volcanic lineament slightly oblique to the main volcanic front.
Huayna'Putina does have an identifiable mountain profile (does not form a prominent topographic elevation) despite its listed elevation of 4,800 meters (15,750 ft).
Hayna'Putina was the site of a single catastrophic eruption in 1600, which was remarkable not only for its size and as the only major explosive eruption in historic times in the Central Andes, but also for its impact on global climate. The eruption lasted from February 19 to March 6, and consisted of a plinian eruption, dome building, and collapse. The eruption destroyed the pre-1600 edifice which then was described as "a low ridge in the centre of the sierra." The powerful eruption was fed by fissures and produced pyroclastic flows and surges that traveled 13 km to the East and South East. Hot mud flows (lahars) reached the Pacific Ocean, 120 km away. It erupted an estimated 30 cubic km of dacitic tephra (12 km3 of magma), including ash fall and pyroclastic flow deposits.
The eruption was preceded by 4 days of intense seismic activity, then it started on February with a none violent phase and lasted until March 6. The main and most violent phase was on February 19 and announced itself by 2 large earthquakes. This phase was sustained at least 13 hours, but likely lasted until February 20. The sky became dark and white and the noise was compared to artillery fire. The plume decreased and ash-fall continued until February 22 when the sun was briefly visible. The area was in darkness for about 40 hours. Intermittent ash-fall continued until March 6, but dust in the air made the sun appear hazy until April 2. Ash was widespread much of the surrounding countryside as far as Arequipa, 80 km away.
After the eruption four vents have been identified near the crater and on the flanks of the edifice and also three overlapping ash cones with craters up to 100 meters deep were constructed during the explosion on the floor of the ancestral crater, whose outer flanks are heavily mantled by ash deposits covering an area of 360,000 km2.
The eruption caused a large number of fatalities and substantial damage to the villages and the nearby cities of Arequipa and Moquegua. Regional economies took 150 years to fully recover.
On a global scale, the following summers were some of the coldest in the last 500 years. Sulfur aerosols erupted from the volcano entered the Earth's atmosphere and reflected sunlight, resulting in this global temperature drop.
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