Nevado Tres Cruces is a massif of volcanic origin in the Andes Mountains on the border of Argentina and Chile.

Nevado Tres Cruces is located in the High Andes of Copiapo[2] and straddles the boundary between Chile (Atacama Region) and Argentina (Catamarca Province).

[8] The northern volcano has a summit elevation of 6,206 metres (20,361 ft)[13] and is capped by a glacially eroded, 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide crater.

[25] Small glaciers occur on Nevado Tres Cruces[26] on the eastern and southern sides[27] above 5,500 metres (18,000 ft) elevation.

They are best developed above 5,750 metres (18,860 ft) elevation and consist of small ice bodies (none exceeding 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi)) in glacial cirques and at the edges of lava flows.

[33] There are cirques at 5,500 metres (18,000 ft) on the eastern sides of Nevado Tres Cruces[34] and traces of periglacial occur.

These are separated by gaps where Pleistocene and Holocene volcanism is absent and where the downgoing plate sinks into the mantle at a shallow angle,[36] squeezing out the overlying asthenosphere.

[37] Nevado Tres Cruces is part of the CVZ,[38] which spans Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile and features over 1100 volcanoes.

Among the better known volcanoes are Acamarachi, Aguas Calientes, Arintica, Aucanquilcha, Cerro Bajo, Cerro Escorial, Chiliques, Colachi, Cordon de Puntas Negras, Escalante, Guallatiri, Guayaques, Irruputuncu, Isluga, Lascar, Lastarria, Licancabur, Llullaillaco, Olca-Paruma, Ollagüe, Ojos del Salado, Parinacota, Pular, Putana, San Pedro, Sierra Nevada de Lagunas Bravas, Socompa, Taapaca and Tacora.

These volcanoes are remote and thus, aside from potential impacts of ash clouds on aerial travel, they do not constitute a major threat to humans.

[41] During the Oligocene and Miocene volcanic activity occurred in the Maricunga Belt, then around 6 million years ago it migrated eastward.

[42] Nevado Tres Cruces has erupted rocks ranging from dacite to rhyodacite[7] which define a potassium-rich calc-alkaline suite.

[5] Strong winds, intense insolation, high diurnal and seasonal temperature variations characterize the region.

[46] The volcano was climbed on February 24, 1937, by members of the Second Polish Andean Expedition, Stefan Osiecki and Witold Paryski [pl].

[49] The time-averaged growth rate of 0.01–0.02 cubic kilometres per millennium (0.0024–0.0048 cu mi/ka)[50] is slow for a volcano on a convergent margin.

A large explosive eruption 67,000±9,000 years ago deposited pyroclastic flows east and southeast of Nevado Tres Cruces.

[57][58] However, the last securely dated eruption of Nevado Tres Cruces goes back to 67,000 years ago, making a correlation questionable.