Stratovolcanoes are composed of steeply dipping layers of lava, hardened ash, and other material that erupted from the main vent such as tephra and pumice.

These eruptions will generally produce pyroclastic flows containing toxic gas and hot volcanic fragment traveling at high speeds.

Just like Mount Fuji and St. Helens, stratovolcanoes tend to be very big because they have a conduit system inside them that channels magma from deep within the Earth to the surface.

These type of volcanoes also have clusters of vents, with lava breaking through walls, or issuing from fissures on the sides of the mountain which allows them to grow big & very tall.

When the volcano erupted, lava flowed where the town is located today and left enriched soils where blue agave can thrive.