Catalog record
These fields are copied from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Holocene volcano snapshot stored on this site. The file was fetched 2026-09-19T12:21:44Z. It is a location catalog, not a live alert.
- Catalog name
- Cotopaxi
- GVP number
- 352050
- Country
- Ecuador
- Type
- Stratovolcano
- Elevation
- 5,911 m
- Region
- South America Volcanic Regions
- Subregion
- Northern Andean Volcanic Arc
- Tectonic setting
- Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km)
- Last-eruption year
- 2023
- Evidence code
- Eruption Observed
- Latitude, longitude
- -0.677, -78.436
Elevation rank in the Northern Andean Volcanic Arc in this snapshot: 2 of 35. Rank is by the listed elevation only. It is not a hazard ranking.
How to read the last-eruption year
The year is a catalog field. A recent year means the snapshot recorded activity in that year. It is not an alert level, a size, or a statement about what happens next. Evidence codes in this file include “Eruption Observed” and “Eruption Dated.” Those are Smithsonian categories for how the eruption year was established, not a forecast flag.
Setting
Cotopaxi is listed at 5,911 m with a last-eruption year of 2023. Chimborazo, in the same Northern Andean Volcanic Arc, is listed higher, at 6,261 m. The point lies in the South America rectangle (latitude −56 to 5, longitude −85 to −65).
The USGS list of the largest earthquakes since 1900 includes the 31 January 1906 M8.8 earthquake near the coast of Ecuador at 0.96°N, 79.37°W. Cotopaxi’s catalog point is a volcano coordinate, not that epicenter. The distance tool measures the gap. A gap measured in kilometers is not a statement that the volcano and the 1906 rupture are one source, and it is not a forecast.
Inside these documented rectangles: South America (Chile–Peru–Ecuador). The rectangles are documented on the About page. They are a lat/lon belt, not an official plate polygon.
Other volcanoes in this subregion
Highest listed elevations in the Northern Andean Volcanic Arc in this snapshot, excluding this volcano when it is already first:
- Chimborazo, 6,261 m, last-eruption year 550.
- Cayambe, 5,790 m, last-eruption year 1786.
- Antisana, 5,753 m, last-eruption year 1802.
Distance to published great-earthquake epicenters
The distances below use this volcano’s catalog coordinates and epicenters from the USGS list of the 20 largest earthquakes since 1900. They are spherical distances to points, not distances to a fault trace, and not a hazard score.
- 1906 M8.8 Ecuador–Colombia (1906-01-31 15:36 UTC) — 210 km from the catalog point.
- 2001 M8.4 Arequipa, Peru (2001-06-23 20:33 UTC) — 1,812 km from the catalog point.
- 1922 M8.5 Atacama, Chile (1922-11-11 04:33 UTC) — 3,203 km from the catalog point.
You can repeat the measurement for any coordinates on the distance to fault references tool.
What this page will not tell you
It will not tell you the next eruption time, the next earthquake on the neighboring trench, or an evacuation route. For U.S. volcano notices, use the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. For earthquakes, use the USGS event pages linked from Live Quakes. This site’s volcano map only draws the Holocene catalog.