Antigua Guatemala

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay






The port of Puerto Quetzal.

Below: Scenes on the way to Antigua Guatemala.
 

Volcanoes!

Volcan de Agua (3762 m, 12,339 feet), so called because it released lots of mudflows in colonial days.
Volcan de Fuego (3763 m 12,343 feet) on the left and Volcan Acatenango (3976 m, 13,041 feet ) to its right and behind it. Yes, it can snow up there.
Below: The light strips are mudflow scars.
Below: Lahar deposits.
Right: Volcan de Agua
Left: Acatenango.

Below: Volcan de Fuego living up to its name.
Nice likeness.
 

The Cathedral

 
 

Plaza Mayor


Below: Palacio de los Capitanes Generales.

Street Scenes

Jade Factory

Guatemala jade is the sodium aluminum pyroxene jadeite NaAlSi2O6. Sodium is the most predictable major element in rocks, and in most rocks it occurs in the feldspar albite (NaAlSi3O8). Under high pressure it breaks down. Albite --> Jadeite + Quartz  (NaAlSi3O8 --> NaAlSi2O6 + SiO2). Jadeite is a typical subduction zone mineral and Central America is one big long subduction zone.

The bright green color is probably due to chromium impurities.

Iglesia de la Concepcion

Between earthquakes and volcanoes, geology has not been kind to Antigua Guatemala's old buildings.

El Carmen

 

Iglesia de la Merced

 

Religious Floats

 

Arco de Santa Catalina

Your Antigua Guatemala money shot: Acatenango framed by the Arco de Santa Catalina.

Last chance to sell some souvenirs.
Left: Volcan de Agua

Below: small cemetery
Above: Repairing a bridge taken out by the lahar.

Left: Now there's something you don't see every day: a road sign saying "Volcan en Erupcion" (Volcano erupting).

Below: Lahar deposits.
Twilight at Puerto Quetzal.







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Created 22 June 2007, Last Update