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Empires, governments and tribes have come and gone. Religions have fallen in and out of favor. And amidst all this social instability, Damavand, has been a tower of stability and constancy; our only true, reliable friend.
Damavand
is a towering volcano just 40 miles northeast of Teheran, near the
Southern coast of the Caspian Sea, which is still slightly active. It lies in
the Alborz mountain area, which is approximately 300km long and 100 km wide and
is a natural barrier between the Caspian sea and the Iranian desert. This chain
of 5000m high peaks is very interesting to look at and would make a beautiful
setting for skiing. In a few days it is possible to walk over a dozen peaks
which are higher than 4000m.
Damavand has not erupted in historical times, though occasional steam and sulfur
gases exude from the top. The view from the summit is an amazing panorama of
Iran's vast expanse of mountains, valleys, and deserts.
A village near Damavand (kilan)
Fact about Damavand Volcano
Damavand Volcano is an isolated, >350km3 Quaternary composite cone rising 5,670m in the Alborz Mountain Range north of Tehran. Morphological and sedimentological observations, mapping, and U-He dating of apatite phenocrysts have been used to constrain the history of the volcano. The slopes of the volcano comprise trachyandesite lava flows partially overlain by reworked pyroclastic fall deposits. Volcaniclastic sediments are well exposed in cliff-sections and subsidiary valleys along a major N-S drainage, the Haraz River. The exposed sediments consist of fluvial and debris flow deposits, containing mainly clasts of lava and minor basement material. One significant ignimbrite unit has been identified, though pyroclastic eruptions were apparently minor and infrequent. Debris avalanche deposits suggest that one or more sector collapse events shaped the edifice. Local geomorphology has been strongly affected by the formation of the volcano, as erupted products are the main source material for the sediments. A large proportion of the sediments has been eroded into the Haraz River and away from the area towards the Caspian Sea. The sedimentary record of the volcano's growth and evolution is thus greatly fragmented.
Slopes around Damavand
Two periods of eruptive activity have been identified (1.78Ma-800ka and 500ka-7.3ka), separated by a period of quiescence. During this time of inactivity, the hydrothermally-altered material in the core of the volcano was exposed and rapidly eroded because of its non-resistant nature. The eruptive style has remained the same throughout the volcano's two million year history despite one or more sector collapse events and the formation of a second cone overlying the old eroded cone.
Lar lake near Damavand
