RAMOS CATALAN (1888-1961)
Nevado de Longavi (3,242m- 10,636ft)
Chile
The mountain
Nevado de Longavi (3,242m- 10,636ft) is a volcano in the Andes of central Chile located in the Linares Province and the Maule Region. It features a summit crater and several parasitic craters. The volcano is constructed principally from lava flows. Two collapses of the edifice have carved collapse scars into the volcano, one on the eastern slope known as Lomas Limpias and another on the southwestern slope known as Los Bueye. The volcano featured a glacier in 1976 and is the headwater of the Achibueno and Blanco rivers.
The oldest volcanic activity occurred one million years ago. After a first phase characterized by basaltic andesite effusion, the bulk of the edifice was constructed by andesitic lava flows.
Nevado de Longavi features an unusual magma chemistry that resembles adakite. It may be the consequence of the magma being unusually water-rich; such may occur because the Mocha fracture zone subducts beneath the volcano.
Nevado de Longavi was active during the Holocene. 6,835 ± 65 or 7,500 years before present an explosive eruption deposited pumice over 20 kilometres (12 mi) away from the volcano. A lava flow was then erupted over the pumice. The last eruption occurred about 5,700 years ago and formed a lava dome. The volcano has no historic eruptions but features fumarolic activity.
Benito Ramos Catalán (1888-1961) was a chilean painter who used to sign "Ramos Catalan". Known for his marines and landscapes of the Andes and Chile, and most particularly for his mountains paintings. Most of them have the same title: "Mountains of Chile" or "Mountains landscapes of Andes", making quite difficult to know which mountain was exactly depicted, in a country which has quite a lot of summits ! To add to the difficulty, he used to paint the most famous mountains of his country under very unusual angles or with proportions that do not correspond exactly to their real size... making even more difficult to recognize and identify them for experts ! That is why today, 55 years after his death, some of these mountains paintings are not clearly identified and presented, in the public sales, as 'possibly' a particular summit of Chile or Andes...
His works are in many Chilean institutions like Viña del Mar Fine Art Museum, O'Higginiano Fine Art Museum in Talca, Valparaiso Fine Art Museum, and Navy Schools in Valparaiso and Talcahuano, Ranos.
