Tronador

Tronador
View of Tronador mountain from Mascardi Lake, Argentina
Highest point
Elevation	3,491 m (11,453 ft)
Prominence	2,642 m (8,668 ft)
Listing	Region high point Province high point Ultra
Coordinates	41°09′39″S 71°53′15″W / 41.16083°S 71.88750°W / -41.16083; -71.88750Coordinates: 41°09′39″S 71°53′15″W / 41.16083°S 71.88750°W / -41.16083; -71.88750
Naming
Translation	thunderer
Geography
Tronador Location in Argentina, on the border with Chile.
Location	Río Negro, Argentina - Los Lagos, Chile
Parent range	Andes
Geology
Mountain type	Stratovolcano
Volcanic arc/belt	South Volcanic Zone
Last eruption	Unknown
Climbing
First ascent	1934 by Hermann Claussen

Tronador (in Spanish Cerro Tronador) is an extinct stratovolcano in the southern Andes, located along the border between Argentina and Chile, near the Argentine city of Bariloche. The mountain was named Tronador (Spanish for Thunderer) by locals in reference to the sound of falling seracs. With an altitude of 3,470 m, Tronador stands more than 1000 m above nearby mountains in the Andean massif, making it a popular mountaineering destination. Located inside two National Parks, Nahuel Huapi in Argentina and Vicente Pérez Rosales in Chile, Tronador hosts a total of eight glaciers, which are currently retreating due to warming of the upper troposphere.

Tronador is located in the Wet Andes, a zone of high precipitations in form of both snow and rain. The humid temperate climate of the southern Andes allows several glaciers to develop due to high accumulation rates. Most of the precipitation is produced by western frontal systems from the Pacific. Located in the middle of the Andean massif at a latitude of 41° S Tronador is part of an alpine landscape of fjords, glacial lakes and u-shaped valleys. The forming of the landscape took place during the Quaternary glaciations, periods during which the whole area was covered by the Patagonian Ice Sheet. The volcano grew during the glacials and interglacials of the but became practically extinct in late Middle Pleistocene 300 ka ago, due to a shift in the active front of the Southern Volcanic Zone to which it belongs. Since then, glaciations and other erosive processes shaped the mountain freely without new output of lava or tephra. As in the case of nearby Lanín volcano Tronador is built up mostly of basalts, and has seen a decline in activity as the Osorno and Calbuco volcanoes grow further west.