Le Pico de Orizaba (Mexique): Structure et evolution d’un grand volcan andesitique complexe

Volcan Pico de Orizaba, which marks the eastern end of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, is one of the largest andesitic composite volcanoes in America. It is located above a series of crustal distensive faults making the boundary of the Coast Plains of the Gulf of Mexico from theAltiplano. For this reason, the volcano shows an asymmetry: from the west, its elevation is about 3,000 m whereas on the eastern side it reaches 4,000 to 4,500 m from its base. The Pico de Orizaba is composed of a primitive stratovolcano raised by a recent summit cone. It has been built by three very distinct volcanic and magmatic phases.

1. The first one, probably discontinuous effusive activity, lasted more than one million years. It is mainly composed of two pyroxenes-andesites with scarce associated basaltic and dacitic lava-flows. Amphibole is an accessory mineral in most differentiated lavas. On the eastern flank, numerous massive and autobrecciated lava-flows pass outward into thick conglomeratic formations. This effusive phase has built a primitive central volcano and a parasitic cone: the Sierra Negra.
2. The second phase is of short duration — about 100,000 years or less — in comparison with the first period. It seems that this period began with the formation of a caldera followed by the extrusion of amphibole dacite domes and the overflow of viscous silica-rich (andesite to dacite) lava flows on the northern flank. An intense explosive activity develops:pelean nuées ardentes are associated with extrusion of the domes; numerous plinian eruptions leading to widespread dacitic pumiceous air-falls are produced by both the central and the adventive volcanoes. This sequence of events is interpreted as the progressive emptying of a superficial chamber containing differenciated magma. A rhyolite flow erupted during this phase.
3. The age of the recent phase is better defined. It started 13,000 years B.P. with the eruption of a dacitic ash-flow containing pumice and scoria-bombs. This was such an intense event that products were found 30 km S.E. of the summit, erasing the top of the former volcano and creating a large crater (4–5 km wide). The present cone, of 1,400–1,500 m elevation, grew in this crater. During a period of 7,000 to 8,000 years, the new stratovolcano experienced various important pyroclastic eruptions with a cycle of the order of 1,000 to 1,500 years. The pyroclastic flows (ash, pumice, and bombs) associated with air-fall deposits are of Saint-Vincent type. They present an heterogeneous dacitic and andesitic magma. The dacitic component is similar to previous differenciated materials. On the other hand, the andesitic magma appears somewhat similar to lava-flows from morphologically young cones erupted outside the central vent system. This eruptive cycle can be interpreted as the result of reoccurring injections of deep basic magma within the crustal chamber. For the last 5,000 years the activity of the modern Pico de Orizaba has again been essentially effusive (andesites) with periodic plinian eruptions.