I recently climbed the snow covered and active Volcan Villarica in southern Chile and because the experience was so incredible, I have much interest in returning to both Chile and Bolivia to climb more volcanos. What is the best way to asses the safety of different active volcanos? Do you know who monitors the volcanos of the Andes? Where else or more specificly what other volcanos in that area are active? I'm not some thrill seeking freak with a death wish but rather a thrill seeking freak who wants to be well informed. I would appreciate any help you could send my way. Also what is the name of the fault or plates that have caused the volcanos in the Andes? Thank you for your time and knowledge.

Jim Eustace

Your last question is the easiest one to answer so I'll do it first. The andes are caused by subduction of the Nazca plate under the South American plate. As for monitoring the various Andean volcanoes, it is pretty much up to the countries that the volcanoes occur in. Also, some of them are monitored relatively well whereas others are not at all. Back in the VolcanoWorld home page are some links to volcano observatories elsewhere in the world. There is a more extensive list of these on the Michigan Tech Univ. volcanology home page: http://www.geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes/ There must also be local climbing clubs and guides that can give you reliable information, as well as the South American Explorers' Club. One thing I can say is that if you have good photos of these various volcanoes that you'd like to have posted on VolcanoWorld, we'd be more than happy to have them (and credit you for having taken them, of course).

Sincerely,
Scott Rowland

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