Cerro Panizos

Cerro Panizos is a late Miocene-age shield-shaped volcano spanning parts of Bolivia and Argentina. It features two calderas (a depression formed by the collapse of a volcano) and a group of lava domes in the Potosi Department of Bolivia and the Jujuy Province of Argentina. It is part of the Andean Central Volcanic Zone (CVZ) and the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex (APVC), a group of calderas and associated ignimbrites (a form of volcanic rock) that erupted during the past ten million years. Incapillo is one of several ignimbrite or caldera systems that, along with 44 active stratovolcanoes, are part of the CVZ.

Subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath South America is responsible for most of the volcanism in the CVZ. After activity commenced in the APVC about ten million years ago, it produced the large volcanic calderas Panizos, Vilama, Cerro Guacha and the volcano Uturuncu; the last shows evidence of ongoing activity. The formation of the APVC has been linked to the existence of a giant magmatic body in the crust of the Central Andes.

Panizos is the source of two major ignimbrites, the older Cienago Ignimbrite and the more recent Panizos Ignimbrite. The former was erupted about 7.9 million years ago and the second 6.7 million years ago. The Panizos Ignimbrite has a total volume exceeding 650 cubic kilometres (160 cu mi), and has been noted for volcanic rocks containing orbs. Several volcanic cones such as Limitayoc were active between the ignimbrite eruptions, and a plateau of lava flows and lava domes formed in the central area of the Panizos Ignimbrite after the last eruptions.