Acatenango

Geological summary

Acatenango is ~15 km SW of the city of Antigua, Guatemala, and 3 km N of Fuego volcano. Both edifices were constructed during three eruptive periods post-dating the roughly 85,000-year-old Los Chocoyos tephra from Atitlán caldera. An older Acatenango edifice collapsed to the south sometime prior to 43,000 years ago, forming La Democracia debris-avalanche deposit, which covers a wide area of the Pacific coastal plain. Construction of the Yepocapa cone, ~900 m N of the main crater, was completed about 20,000 years ago, after which growth of the larger southern cone, Pico Central (also known as Pico Mayor), began. The first well-documented eruptions took place from 1924 to 1927 CE. Francisco Vasquez, writing in 1690 CE, noted that in 1661 a volcano that lay aside of Fuego "opened a smoking mouth and still gives off smoke from another three, but without noise."