Chimalpopoca, Central Andes
5.12km x 5.12km Terrain
5m Ground Resolution
The Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes is located between latitudes 14º and 29ºS of the Andean cordillera. An elevated region, much of it over 4000 m in altitude (constituting the altiplano of Bolivia and puna of northern Chile and Argentina) dominates much of this zone.
So little is known about this area that the majority of the volcanoes have never been described, and in a few cases have not even been named. Sixteen of them were considered to be "active" when the existing Catalogue of Active Volcanoes of the World was published (1963-1966).
Chimalpopoca (Smoking Shield) is an unassuming little Holocene volcano situated on the lower approaches to the Bolivian Altiplano. Much smaller than its high-altitude stratovolcano neighbours, Chimalpopoca is well above the treeline, but, at roughly 3500-4500m elevations, it's still low enough to feature grass on its lower flanks.
A catastrophic eruption episode at some point in ancient times resulted in the formation of one massive and several minor pyroclastic channels on the eastern flank, but modern-day observed activity seems to be limited to intemittent minor eruptions of ash.
This synthetic terrain depicts a classic degraded volcanic geomorphology, with major ancient pyroclastic & lava flow features and recent ash carpeting.
Heightmap 2D
Heightmap 3D
This terrain turned out to be one of the trickiest to implement properly...
On the one hand, this is one of the later terrains I designed, when I'd finally got the hang of dictating a basic starting structure for the landscape, before applying erosion techniques. Afghan Valley, the first to be released, was actually the last to be made, and similarly features far less random generation than the other terrains.
In this first attempt at base mapping, a simple volcano shape was the obvious choice, with a few flaws designed to induce those lava flow channels...
All of which worked remarkably well...
Another big bonus with this terrain was just how well the BIS procedural terrain picked up on some of the dramatic elevations present on the main terrain, and followed the theme off into the distance... Instant Andean Cordillera!
Download
Chimalpopoca, Central Andes v0.1
Also available on the Six Updater Network