Quezaltepeque is a volcanic field

Volcanic field

A volcanic field is an area of the Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. They usually contain 10 to 100 volcanoes, such as cinder cones and are usually in clusters. Lava flows may also occur...

 in Chiquimula, Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 at 14°34′0"N 89°27′0"W. It has erupted in the Holocene

Holocene

The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...

. It is an area of basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

ic lava

Lava

Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...

 flows was erupted from vents along a north-south trending fault without explosions, cutting through Tertiary pyroclastic rocks WNW of Ipala

Ipala (volcano)

Volcán Ipala is a stratovolcano in south-eastern Guatemala. It has a wide summit crater which contains a crater lake , whose surface lies about below the crater rim. Volcán Ipala is part of a cluster of small stratovolcanoes and cinder cone fields in south-eastern Guatemala....

 volcano about 5 km south of Quezaltepeque

Quezaltepeque, Chiquimula

Quezaltepeque is a municipality in the Chiquimula department of Guatemala. There are approximately 5,000 inhabitants. The local economy is based on agriculture. Agricultural products include coffee, maize and beans. As of 1993, there was a working telegraph terminal there in the post...

 town. These basaltic flows issued passively from vents along a N-S-trending fault without accompanying explosive activity. There are mounds of lava over the vents.

Etymology

Nahuatl

Nahuatl

Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...

 quetzaltepēc = "at the quetzal

Quetzal

Quetzals are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family . They are found in forests and woodlands, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus Pharomachrus being exclusively Neotropical, while the single Euptilotis species is almost entirely restricted to western Mexico...

feather hill" or "at the tall upstanding hill".