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
- Villarrica
- GVP number
- 357120
- Country
- Chile
- Type
- Stratovolcano
- Elevation
- 2,847 m
- Region
- South America Volcanic Regions
- Subregion
- Southern Andean Volcanic Arc
- Tectonic setting
- Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km)
- Last-eruption year
- 2025
- Evidence code
- Eruption Observed
- Latitude, longitude
- -39.42, -71.93
Elevation rank in the Southern Andean Volcanic Arc in this snapshot: 25 of 58. 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
Villarrica is listed at 2,847 m in the Southern Andean Volcanic Arc, last-eruption year 2025. Cotopaxi is in the Northern Andean Volcanic Arc. The USGS earthquake list treats the Chilean margin as the location of the largest earthquake since 1900, the 22 May 1960 M9.5 Valdivia earthquake at 38.14°S, 73.41°W, and of the 27 February 2010 M8.8 Maule earthquake. Villarrica’s latitude is near that part of the margin. Near, in a catalog sense, still means two different kinds of points: a volcano coordinate and an earthquake epicenter.
The Southern Andes group in this file has many taller entries, including San José at 6,070 m. This page uses Villarrica because it is a well-known active name in the southern arc, not because it wins an elevation contest.
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 Southern Andean Volcanic Arc in this snapshot, excluding this volcano when it is already first:
- San Jose, 6,070 m, last-eruption year 1960.
- Tupungatito, 5,660 m, last-eruption year 1987.
- Maipo, 5,323 m, last-eruption year 1912.
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.
- 1960 M9.5 Valdivia, Chile (1960-05-22 19:11 UTC) — 192 km from the catalog point.
- 2010 M8.8 Maule, Chile (2010-02-27 06:34 UTC) — 377 km from the catalog point.
- 1922 M8.5 Atacama, Chile (1922-11-11 04:33 UTC) — 1,252 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.