Cerro Escorial, Stratovolcano in Los Andes Department, Chile

Cerro Escorial is a stratovolcano on the Argentina–Chile border, the youngest member of the Corrida de Cori volcanic group. A well-preserved crater about 1 kilometre wide forms its summit. Lava flows extend 3–4 kilometres from the crater on the Chilean side, with smaller Holocene flows on the Argentine side.

Cerro Escorial is the youngest member of the Corrida de Cori volcanic group. Andesite lavas erupted during the Miocene and Pliocene, and a Plinian eruption 460,000±10,000 years ago produced the dacitic Escorial ignimbrite, about 0.6 cubic kilometres in volume. Lava eruptions followed, forming a Holocene cinder cone, and one lava flow on the Chilean side is dated 342,000 years ago by argon-argon dating.

The sulfur mine 4 km southwest of the summit, worked until about 1983, is the main trace of human activity here; the crater and lava flows themselves lie in uninhabited Puna terrain with no infrastructure. Renewed activity would therefore have little impact on people.

Visitors should attempt the ascent only during stable weather, as this location sits at high elevation in an alpine setting. Warm clothing and proper gear are essential for safety and comfort.

The Escorial ignimbrite, also called the Corrida de Cori or Caletones Cori ignimbrite, carries quartz veins and chunks of basement rock, signs that the magma interacted with a buried hydrothermal system. Its source eruption 460,000 years ago left a radial structure of separate flows.