Vaiyots-Sar

About Vaiyots-Sar

The Vaiyots-Sar pyroclastic cone is located in the southern Armenia province of Vayots Dzor in the western Vardenis Volcanic Highland south of Lake Sevan (Karakhanian et al., 2002); previous names such as Dar-Alages or Daly-Tapa are of Russian origin. Near the north end of the approximately 5 x 8 km flow field the 1.5-km-diameter cone rises about 300 m above the surrounding lavas, identified by Sviatlovsky (1959) as post-glacial. Oswald (1906) noted that steep escarpments of Nummulitic limestones were ~6 km NE of the cone across an lava-flow field. At the southern end of the flow field a fissure-fed lava flow several thousand years ago dammed the Arpah River near the town of Vyke and then flowed NW for 6 km; the flows overlie a late Pleistocene terrace and have little soil development (Karakhanian et al., 2002). The youthful-looking Smbatassar cinder cone, 17 km NW of Vaiyots-Sar, appears to be the source vent for Holocene lava flows that traveled 11 km N and 17 km S down two valleys (Karakhanian et al., 2002).