The active stratovolcano of Santa Maria is situated to the west of Guatemala, in the immediate vicinity to the city of Quetzaltenango. It’s about 3,770 meters high. According to scientists, the first eruption of Santa Maria volcano occurred about 30,000 years ago. First recorded eruption has been a little over a hundred years ago, in 1902; it has claimed the lives of six thousand people.
The eruption has been so strong that residents of Costa Rica have heard the preceding explosion at a distance of 800 kilometers. Height of the ash stem has been about 28 kilometers; the eruption has thrown out at least 5.5 cubic kilometers of lava. This eruption was one of the most powerful and tragic in the 20th century. In 1922, a new Santiaguito mouth has formed that can be found an altitude of about 2,500 meters.
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