Orizaba Volcano, Mexico

Abstract

Pico de Orizaba (19°02′N, 97°16′W) is a stratovolcano, the highest mountain in Mexico, and the third highest peak in North America. Its height approaches 5,700 m a.s.l. Gigantic cones of the volcano are 30 km in diameter. It is situated in the eastern end of the Eje Volcánico, Transversal Mountain Range, on the border between the states of Veracruz and Puebla. The volcano is currently dormant but not extinct; the last eruption occurred in the seventeenth century (1687), which followed several previous events.

Orizaba volcano overlooks the valley and the city of Orizaba, from which it got its modern name; its original Indian name was Citlaltépetl. The mountain is a regionally dominant peak and, in fact, the highest peak between Colombia in South America and Alaska. As a mountain, Pico de Orizaba is ranked seventh in the world in its topographic prominence; among volcanoes, it is the second most prominent volcanic peak in the world after Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro (prominence of the peak is not the height of its summit above sea level, but the height of the peak's summit above the lowest contour line encircling the mountain). Although the volcano is located about 110 km inland, west of the port of Veracruz, its peak is visible to ships approaching the port in the Gulf of Mexico, and at dawn, rays of sunlight strike the Pico while Veracruz still lies in shadow. The Pico is ranked as the 16th in the world for its topographic isolation.