El Nevado de Toluca is a large stratovolcano in central Mexico, located near Toluca in Estado de Mxico.

It is the fourth highest of Mexico's peaks, after Pico de Orizaba, Popocatpetl and Iztacchuatl. It was decreed a national park in 1936, primarily to protect the volcano. The volcano is above the tree line with only rock and grassland and devoid of snow most of the year. The volcano has been long extinct and has a large crater, about 1.5 kilometers wide. The crater floor is at 4,558 meters above sea level, formed by rock that seals the opening of this long-extinct volcano. There we can find, two shallow lakes. Those lakes are located at 4,200 meters, the larger Lago del Sol, the Sun Lake, and the smaller, but deeper, Lago de la Luna, the Moon Lake. The last major eruption of El Nevado de Toluca occurred during the late Pleistocene, the volcano erupted a total estimated volume of 14 km3. The eruption emplaced 1.5 m of pebble-sized pumice in the region of Toluca, and about 50 centimeters of fine sand in the Mexico City region. El Nevado de Toluca has a cold alpine climate with cold temperatures all the year. There is little variation in the temperatures and frost and snow can occur in any month. The dry season start from November to March and precipitation is low, about 12.4 millimeters. But wet season are from May to October and precipitation is very high with an average of 243.5 millimeters. Temperatures during this time are cold, average in January is 2.3 C. El Nevado de Toluca was a ritual center during pre-Hispanic periods, Bernardino de Sahagn wrote about the lakes as a place where the indigenous held ceremonies and sacrifices. In the lakes we can find deposits of offerings, especially copal, and ceramics and sculpted stones. We can find sand and gravel concentrated in the area around the volcano and mining is relatively easy as those materials are near the surface. El Nevado de Toluca, belongs to the Faja Volcnica Trans-Mexicana (FVTM), a complex which include other mountains and volcanos in Mexico and its a continental magmatic arch going through the center on Mexico from East to West, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The volcanic activity started more than 1.7 Myrs, but the activity in El Nevado de Toluca it was about 2.6 Myrs ago and actually keeps the Popocatpetl alive. There is an investigation related to the geochemical activity and the presence of isotopics obtained in the rocks from El Nevado de Toluca. It was found that concentration of SiO2 goes from 53 to 66% in weight and 4 to 6% in weight of Na2O+K2O, which makes a difference between stratovolcanos. Has been documented a rich concentration of elements like Pb, very similar to calcoalkaline rocks formed in volcanic archs. Patrons about rare earths, seems to be rich in these elements.

GEOS, Vol. 25, No. 1, Noviembre, 2005 GEOQUIMICA Y PETROLOGIA

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