Volcano Ash Threatens Ecuador’s Ambato City

Ambato May Become a Ghost City

Tungurahua Volcano, “Throat of Fire,” Eruption Continues

Volcanic ash from Tungurahua volcano, which has been erupting for the past several weeks, has covered a wide area of central Ecuador, including provincial capital city of Ambato, authorities said.

Tungurahua volcano, located near Baños, Ecuador. Photo Credit: Martin Zeise, Berlin. SEE Official license. Click Image to enlarge.

Authorities fear that the volcanic ash from Tungurahua, will cause heavy crop loss as well as health problems.

“People have to protect their nose and eyes, because the volcanic dust causes problems in the respiratory system,” provincial health Director was quoted as saying.

However, most of the residents of Ambato, located in Ecuador’s central Andean valley, have ignored government advice to done masks, as they swept thick blankets of ash from the streets, health officials said, UPI reported.

“Since the reactivation of the volcano this year, this is the first time that the dust has fallen on the streets of the city,” a city official told Quito’s El Comercio newspaper.

Tungurahua, which means “Throat of Fire,” is located about  180 km south of Quito, capital city of Equador.

After a large eruption on Jan. 11, Tungurahua has continued to eject columns of ash reaching  as high as 4,000 meters above the summit. The volcano erupted more than 20 times on Wednesday, said Daniel Andrade of Ecuadorian Instituto Geofísico (the Institute of Geophysics).

City of Ambato

The city of Ambato (1°14′30″S, 78°37′11″W) lies in the valley of the Central Cordillera and is surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes including Carihuairazo, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Chimborazo, the largest mountain in Ecuador.

Ambato has an estimated population of 400,000, has been destroyed by earthquakes several times throughout its history, the last incident occurred on 5 August 1949.

The earthquake completely destroyed the entire city as well as 50 of surrounding towns and villages,  killing at least 6,000, and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Ambato is also prone to seasonal flooding due to the Ambato River which divides the north side of the city.

Tungurahua erupted on May 16, 2006, covering the city in a thick blanket of ash.

Tungurahua Volcano
Country: Ecuador
Volcano Number: 1502-08=
Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
Last Known Eruption: 2009
Summit Elevation: 5,023 m  (16,479 feet)
Latitude: 1.467°S  (1°28’1″S)
Longitude: 78.442°W  ( 78°26’30″W)
Source: Global Volcanism Program (GVP)

Snow-capped Tungurahua, seen from near the town of Baños on its northern flank, rises 3,200 m above steep-walled canyons. Historical eruptions, separated by long reposes, have produced powerful explosions, sometimes accompanied by pyroclastic flows and lava flows. All historical eruptions have originated from the summit crater, and have typically lasted for several years. The largest historical eruptions took place in 1886, 1916, and 1918.  Photo by Minard Hall, 1976 (Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito). Caption: GVP. Click Image to enlarge.

A break in the clouds enabled the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite to observe the eruption on January 23, 2010. As the satellite orbited overhead, a tan ash plume stretched 60 km (40 miles) to the southwest of the peak reaching an altitude of 27,000 feet (8,200 meters), more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above the 5,023 m (16,480 ft) summit. Observers from the Ecuadorian Instituto Geofísico reported lava fountains and lava blocks cascading down the flanks of the volcano, as well as loud booms and ashfall in the surrounding communities. NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS RRT. Caption by Robert Simmon.  Edited by FEWW. Click Image to enlarge.

Related Links:

• Volcanoes
• FEWW Volcano Links
• Earthquakes [Main Index page]
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

VolcanoWatch Weekly [7 October 2009]

VOW:  Ambrym

Destructive acid rain caused by eruption

According to press reports, an eruption from Benbow Crater occurred on 10 February [1979.]  Gases from the eruption caused acid rainfall on the SW portion of Ambrym Island, destroying most vegetation within 24 hours, contaminating water supplies, and burning some inhabitants. Jean-Luc Saos, Director of Mineral Resources for the New Hebrides government, reported a high concentration of HCl and sulfur compounds in the volcanic gases. Although heavy ashfalls have occurred in the area in the past, this is the first report of acid rains. More …

View of the Marum cone at Ambrym looking SW, 7 June 2007. Incandescence from the active lava lakes can be seen reflected in the clouds (left). Courtesy of Steven Clegg.

Lava lake inside Mbwelesu crater within Marum cone at Ambrym, 7 June 2007. Courtesy of Steven Clegg.

A hazy layer of vog—volcanic fog—overlies Malekula and a few other islands of the Vanuatu archipelago in this natural-color satellite image. The source of the vog is Ambrym, a volcano in the southeast (lower right) corner of this scene. The haze extends over the Coral Sea several hundred kilometers to the northwest. Ambrym emits sulfur dioxide—the gas responsible for the formation of vog— intermittently. (Kilauea Volcano has recently affected the residents of Hawaii with similar vog emissions.)  The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image on October 6, 2009. [Large earthquake measuring up to 8.2 Mw struck Vanuatu region  on October 7, 2009 at 22:03 UTC. FEWW] NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of this region. Caption by Robert Simmon.

Ash plume from Ambrym Volcano, Vanuatu October 4, 2004, 23:00 UTC.  Source: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response System.

View into the Mbwelesu crater on the Marum cone at Ambrym, captured 7 September 2008. Lava can be seen through two gaps in the crusted-over lava lake (enlarged insets). Courtesy of Arnold Binas.

Ambrym, a large basaltic volcano with a 12-km-wide caldera, is one of the most active volcanoes of the New Hebrides arc. A thick, almost exclusively pyroclastic sequence, initially dacitic, then basaltic, overlies lava flows of a pre-caldera shield volcano. The caldera was formed during a major plinian eruption with dacitic pyroclastic flows about 1900 years ago. Post-caldera eruptions, primarily from Marum and Benbow cones, have partially filled the caldera floor and produced lava flows that ponded on the caldera floor or overflowed through gaps in the caldera rim. Post-caldera eruptions have also formed a series of scoria cones and maars along a fissure system oriented ENE-WSW. Eruptions have apparently occurred almost yearly during historical time from cones within the caldera or from flank vents. However, from 1850 to 1950, reporting was mostly limited to extra-caldera eruptions that would have affected local populations. Caption: GVP

Ambtym
Country: Vanuatu
Subregion Name: Vanuatu
Volcano Number: 0507-04=
Volcano Type: Pyroclastic shield
Volcano Status: Historical
Last Known Eruption: 2009
Summit Elevation: 1334 m 4,377 feet
Latitude: 16.25°S 16°15’0″S
Longitude: 168.12°E 168°7’0″E

SI /USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report
(30 September – 6 October 2009)

New activity/Unrest:

• Chaitén, Southern Chile
• Cleveland, Chuginadak Island
• Galeras, Colombia
• Gaua, Banks Islands (SW Pacific)
• Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia)
• Kliuchevskoi, Central Kamchatka (Russia)
• Sakura-jima, Kyushu
• Shiveluch, Central Kamchatka (Russia)
• Soufrière Hills, Montserrat

News From GVP:

On 29 September, people living in Chaitén town, 10 km SW of Chaitén’s Domo Nuevo 1 (Phase I) and Domo Nuevo 2 (Phase II) lava-dome complex, noticed that the eruption column was larger. Scientists conducted an overflight and saw a third lava dome (Phase III) in the SW area of the complex, which had filled up a depression left by a collapse on 19 February.

According to news articles from 2 October, increased seismicity at Gaua was detected during the previous two weeks. Villagers living nearby reported ashfall and sulfur odors.

An explosive eruption from Galeras on 30 September prompted INGEOMINAS to raise the Alert Level. An ash plume rose to an approximate altitude of 12.3 km (40,400 ft) a.s.l. and drifted E, then N. —GVP

Ongoing Activity:

• Batu Tara, Komba Island (Indonesia)
• Dukono, Halmahera
• Kilauea, Hawaii
• Langila, New Britain
• Popocatépetl, México
• Rabaul, New Britain
• Reventador, Ecuador
• Sangay, Ecuador
• Suwanose-jima, Ryukyu Islands (Japan)

Related Links:

• Messages From Earth’s Powerhouse
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 19 March 2009

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• Tonga’s Metis Shoal may be erupting
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”
• Volcanoes
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FEWW Volcanic Activity Forecast

• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts

• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts
• Volcano Watch Weekly: 23 April 2009

• Weekly Volcano Watch: 16 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 2 April 2009

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Other Related Links:

• U.S. Volcano Status Map
• Elevated Activity Page
• U.S. Volcano Webcams

Recent Posts on Chaitén:

• Chaitén: A New Phase of Activity?
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La Cumbre Volcano Erupts

La Cumbre in Galapagos Islands erupts after 4 years of dormancy

La Cumbre volcano on Fernandina Island on Saturday began spewing smoke and gas into the air with lava flowing into the sea, the Galapagos National Park (PNG) said.

The uninhabited Fernandina is the most volcanically active island in the Galapagos archipelago. La Cumbre had previously erupted in May 2005.

PNG does not expect the eruption to affect people living on nearby Isabela Island, the largest in the archipelago (see map below).

Aerial photo of the eruption of the La Cumbre volcano in Fernandina island, Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador dated April 11, 2009. It’s feared that the eruption could affect the archipelagos fauna, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, the Galapagos National Park (PNG) said. Photo: PNG.

Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands located  in the Pacific Ocean near  the equator about 1,000km west of continental Ecuador. The Galapagos are home to unique flora and fauna including marine and terrestrial iguanas, wolves, the Galapagos tortoise and other wildlife. [Image credit: Indolences ]

The Galapagos archipelago were added to the list of endangered world heritage in 2007 mainly because of the threat from  tourism.

La Cumbre Volcano

• Country: Ecuador
• Region:  Galápagos Islands
• Volcano Type:  Shield volcano
• Previous Known Eruption: 2005
• Summit Elevation: 1,476 m (4,842 feet)
• Latitude: 0.37°S (0°22’0″S)
• Longitude: 91.55°W (91°33’0″W)

(Source: Global Volcanism Program, GVP)

Dust clouds rise from Fernandina [syn: La Cumbre] caldera on July 4, 1968, about three weeks after a major explosive eruption that was followed by collapse of the caldera floor. Collapse occurred incrementally and asymmetrically, ranging up to about 350 m at the SE end of the caldera, which contains the caldera lake. Fernandina, the most active of Galápagos volcanoes and the one closest to the Galápagos mantle plume, is a basaltic shield volcano with a deep 5 x 6.5 km summit caldera. The volcano displays the classic “overturned soup bowl” profile of Galápagos shield volcanoes. Its caldera is elongated in a NW-SE direction and formed during several episodes of collapse. Circumferential fissures surround the caldera and were instrumental in growth of the volcano. Reporting has been poor in this uninhabited western end of the archipelago, and even a 1981 eruption was not witnessed at the time. In 1968 the caldera floor dropped 350 m following a major explosive eruption. Subsequent eruptions, mostly from vents located on or near the caldera boundary faults, have produced lava flows inside the caldera as well as those in 1995 that reached the coast from a SW-flank vent. Collapse of a nearly 1 cu km section of the east caldera wall during an eruption in 1988 produced a debris-avalanche deposit that covered much of the caldera floor and absorbed the caldera lake. Photo by Tom Simkin, 1968 (Smithsonian Institution). Caption: GVP.

Lava fountains from Fernandina volcano in the Galápagos Islands feed digitate lobes of lava in 1978 that travel across a down-dropped block of the NW caldera bench, about 380 m below the caldera rim. The 1978 eruption began on August 8, when a 6-km-high eruption cloud was visible from distant locations in the archipelago, and apparently ended on August 26. During the course of the eruption lava flows traveled 2 km into the caldera lake, more than 400 m below. Photo by Marc Orbach, 1978 (courtesy of Tom Simkin, Smithsonian Institution). Caption: GVP.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the above image of La Cumbre Volcano on Isla Fernandina on April 11, 2009 (released at the speed of light on April 14, 2009). The true-color image shows Isla Fernandina and Isla Isabela. The red outline on Isla Fernandina is a hotspot where MODIS detected unusually hot surface temperatures.  NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid (really?) Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott. Instrument: Terra – MODIS

La Cumbre  remained active on April 12, 2009, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua passed overhead. According to the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency, the volcano experienced continuous ash and steam emissions. Compared to the image acquired the previous day (TOP), this image shows a much smaller red-outlined hotspot of anomalously warm surface temperatures. NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid (!) Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott. Instrument:  Aqua – MODIS

Related Links:

• Volcanoes Index Page

Galeras Erupts Again!

Galeras forceful eruption prompts evacuation

Galeras, a stratovolcano, located near the regional capital city of Pasto in southwest Colombia and close to the border with Ecuador, erupted again on Saturday, prompting the authorities to issue a “red alert” for the area. An evacuation order was issued for about 8,000 people who live in the vicinity of the volcano.

Galeras, seen from the city of Pasto.  Credit: Henry Ernesto Escobar Meneses

The Colombia Institute for Geology and Mines said the blast occurred at about 12:10 UTC Sunday. No fatalities or injuries were reported.

According to the local government  “large amount of ash” was falling on Pasto.

The 4,270-meter volcano has been an active volcano for about a million years and is considered the most active volcano in Colombia. In 1991 it was designated a Decade Volcano due to its proximity to the city of Pasto.

Galeras is seen here from the south on March 17, 1989, with steam clouds pouring from vents on the large central cone near the back headwall of the caldera, whose south rim forms the ridge in the foreground. Major explosive eruptions since the mid Holocene have produced widespread tephra deposits and pyroclastic flows that swept all but the southern flanks.  Photo by Norm Banks (U.S. Geological Survey). Caption: GVP.

On January 14, 1993, during a Decade Volcano conference in Pasto, a group of unfortunate scientists launched an impromptu expedition to the volcano’s crater. Shortly after their arrival, Galeras erupted killing six scientists and three others.

In the 20th century Galeras underwent several episodes of unrest including those in December of 1923, October of 1924, October of 1932, February of 1936, July of 1947, January of 1950, February 1974, February of 1989, January of 1990, January of 1993, March of 2000, June of 2002, July of 2004, November of 2005, October of 2007, and several episodes in 2008 and 2009.

UPDATE: February 20, 2009

Authorities in the south of Colombia are on high alert after the Galeras volcano Friday erupted again. Colombia Reports. Image may be subject to copyright.

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• FEWW Volcano Index
• Earthquakes

Words: 300; images: 2; links: 2

Chevron should pay $27 billion in compensation

Expert estimates cost of oil giant’s environmental damage in Ecuador at $27billion

The oil company Chevron Corp should pay $27 billion in compensation for environmental damage it caused in Ecuador, an expert geologist says.

Antiwar protesters demonstrate outside Chevron Corp headquarters. Source

In a 1990s lawsuit brought against Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, the farmers and indigenous groups in Ecuador contend that the company polluted the forest and damaged their health by dumping about 70 million cubic meters of contaminated water over two decades between 1972 and 1992.

Chevron dismisses the claim arguing that the independent damage report “contains fabricated and erroneous evidence,” and that Texaco was released from any liability because it paid $40 million for an environmental cleanup in the 1990s. Chevron also blames state oil company Petroecuador for most of the pollution.

A final ruling on the case is expected in 2009.

Related News Links:

• Expert asks Ecuador court to fine Chevron $27 billion

Chevron’s Environmental record [from Wikipedia]

From 1965 to 1993, Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001) participated in a consortium to develop the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador. It has been accused of extensive environmental damage from these operations, and faces legal claims from both private plaintiffs and the government of Ecuador. The case has been widely publicized by environmental activists. Chevron claims that it is being unfairly targeted as a deep pocket defendant, when the actual responsibility lies with the government and its national oil company.

Chevron’s activities in Richmond, California have been the subject of ongoing controversy. The project houses over 11 million pounds of toxic materials and has been responsible for over 304 accidents.^[11] For illegally bypassing wastewater treatments and failing to notify the public about toxic releases, Chevron’s Richmond refineries were forced to pay $540,000 in 1998.^[12] Overall, Chevron is listed as potentially responsible for ninety-five Superfund sites—locations for which the EPA has earmarked funds for cleanup.^[13] In October, 2003, the state of New Hampshire sued Chevron and other oil companies for using MTBE, a gasoline additive that the attorney general claimed polluted much of the state’s water supply.^[14]

Chevron’s African operations have also been criticized as environmentally unsound.^[15] In 2002, Angola became the first African nation ever to fine a major multinational corporation operating in its own waters when it demanded 2 million dollars in compensation for oil spills allegedly caused by Chevron’s poor maintenance.^[16]

On October 16, 2003, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. resolved a Clean Air Act settlement, which reduced harmful air emissions by about 10,000 tons a year.^[17] In San Francisco, Chevron was filed by a consent decree to spend almost $275 million to install and utilize innovative technology to reduce nitrogen and sulfur dioxide emissions at its refineries.^[18] After violating the Clean Air Act at an offline loading terminal in El Segundo, California, Chevron paid a $6 million penalty as well as $1 million More…