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Mount Aragats

 
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Mount Aragats
Aragats, Mount (ărəgăts', Rus. ərəgäts') or Mount Alagez (ələgyôs'), extinct volcano, 13,435 ft (4,095 m) high, N Armenia, in the Lesser Caucasus. It is the highest peak in Armenia.


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Mount Aragats
Arakatz001.jpg
Mount Aragats
Mount Aragats is located in Armenia
Mount Aragats
Location in Armenia
Elevation 4,095 metres (13,435 ft)[1]
Location Aragatsotn,  Armenia
Prominence 2,143 m (7,031 ft)[citation needed]
Coordinates 40°32′00″N 44°12′00″E / 40.5333333°N 44.2°E / 40.5333333; 44.2Coordinates: 40°32′00″N 44°12′00″E / 40.5333333°N 44.2°E / 40.5333333; 44.2[1]
Type Stratovolcano
Age of rock Holocene[1]
Last eruption Unknown[1]
Listing Country high point
Ultra

Mount Aragats (Armenian: Արագած) is a large andesitic-to-dacitic[2] stratovolcano in NW Armenia about 40 km NW of the capital city of Yerevan. It is the highest point in Armenia, located in the province of Aragatsotn, northwest from Yerevan. Located on its slopes are the Byurakan Observatory and the medieval Amberd Fortress. The observatory is a historically significant facility responsible for a number of important photographic surveys. Mount Aragats is a popular destination for tourists, especially in summer.[peacock term]

The 4095-m-high main edifice of Aragats is dissected by glaciers and is of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. However, parasitic cones and fissures are located on all sides of the volcano and were the source of large lava flows that descended its lower flanks.

Several of these were considered to be of Holocene age, but later Potassium-Argon dating indicated mid- to late-Pleistocene ages. The youngest lower-flank flows have not been precisely dated, but are constrained as occurring between the end of the late-Pleistocene and 3000 BC (Kharakanian et al., 2003). A 13-km-long, WSW-ENE-trending line of craters and pyroclastic cones cuts across the northern crater rim and is the source of young lava flows and lahars; the latter were considered to be characteristic of Holocene summit eruptions.

Contents

Nearby towns

The towns around the mountain include Ashtarak to its southeast, Aparan to its northeast, Artik to its northwest, and Talin to its southwest. On the other sides of the mountains are villages and towns.

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Aragats". Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution. http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0104-06-. 
  2. ^ http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0104-06-

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