Villarrica

Villarrica maintains one of only a handful of persistent lava lakes on Earth — a glowing pool of molten basalt visible at the bottom of its summit crater, accessible to guided climbers.

The Mapuche name Rucapillán means 'House of the Great Spirit,' reflecting the volcano's sacred status in indigenous cosmology for millennia before European contact.

With 162 recorded eruptions, Villarrica is the most active volcano in the Southern Andes and one of the most active on the entire South American continent.

The volcano's 40 km² of glacial ice make lahars its deadliest hazard — the 1963 and 1971 eruptions killed over 35 people, primarily through mudflows reaching towns in less than 40 minutes.

Centro de Esquí Villarrica-Pucón operates a ski resort on the active flanks of the volcano, offering the unique experience of skiing above a glowing lava lake.

The March 3, 2015, paroxysm sent a lava fountain 1,500 m (4,900 ft) into the sky above Pucón at 3:00 AM — one of the most dramatic volcanic events in recent Chilean history.

Villarrica's VEI 5 eruption around 1810 BCE produced pyroclastic flows that traveled up to 20 km from the summit — a scale of violence not seen in any historical eruption.

The town of Pucón, population ~30,000, sits directly in the path of potential lahars from the Turbio River valley, making it one of the most volcanically exposed tourist destinations in the world.

Villarrica has been continuously erupting at a low level since December 2014, making the current eruptive episode its longest in the observational record (11+ years and counting).

The Spanish city of Villarrica was founded in 1552 and destroyed by Mapuche forces in 1602; it was not permanently refounded until 1882 — 280 years later.

The Holocene geological record at Villarrica reveals at least three VEI 4–5 eruptions in the past 10,000 years, suggesting that future eruptions could be far larger than anything witnessed in historical times.

Villarrica is the closest highly active volcano to a major Southern Hemisphere ski resort, creating a unique intersection of extreme sports and volcanic hazard management.