Ecuador is one of many countries located along the "ring of fire" which contains the majority
of the world's volcanic activity.
It contains 33 active volcanoes, including two which are erupting right now.
One of these volcanoes has produced dozens of historical eruptions, and has an interesting
name.
Its name roughly translates to "the exploder", and explode it frequently does.
The volcano I am referring to is Reventador, which is a large stratovolcano.
This video will discuss this volcano and mention what its future hazards are.
The Reventador volcano can be found in the north central section of Ecuador.
Specifically, this volcano is 90 kilometers east of the nation's capital, Quito.
Like other volcanoes in the country, Reventador exists due to the collision of two tectonic
plates off the west coast of the country.
There, the Nazca tectonic plate is colliding with the South American plate.
The subducted crust from this collision then melts and migrates upwards, before erupting
on the surface and forming a chain of volcanoes.
Reventador began forming approximately 350,000 years ago when a volume of andesitic magma
erupted on the surface.
As additional eruptions occurred, large volumes of ash and lava slowly built this erupting
vent into a rounded gray volcanic cone.
These eruptions ejected bombs of lava in a several kilometer radius, and also featured
short distance pyroclastic flows.
This style of eruption is called a "vulcanian" eruption, as its similar in nature to the
eruptions from Vulcano in Italy.
However, as this volcano got taller and taller, its eastern edifice began to show signs of
structural instability.
Today, if you look at Reventador from above, you will note that it contains a large eastward
facing scar in the landscape.
For those of you who live in the United States, this horseshoe shaped scar should be familiar,
as one formed during an eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980.
This ancient scar represents a large volcanic eruption associated with a summit collapse,
meaning that the volcano catastrophically failed to the east.
The collapse in question caused 20 cubic kilometers of material within the volcano's edifice to
fall downslope in mere moments 30,000 years ago.
In the 10,000 years following this collapse, a new volcanic cone grew out of this caldera.
However, it too became oversteepened, resulting in another large landslide which removed 8
cubic kilometers of rock from Reventador.
Only after this latest collapse did the modern volcanic cone seen today begin to grow.
Although records of Reventador's recent eruptions were only recorded beginning in 1541, it is
assumed that the volcano has been just as active during recorded history as beforehand.
Since 1541, 26 distinct eruptions have occurred.
These distinct eruptions lasted anywhere from a week to 13 years in duration, which at times
deposited long distance lava flows.
the largest eruption from Reventador originated in 2002, after a 26 year period of dormancy.
Instead of erupting in a vulcanian nature, it produced a sustained eruption column in
what is termed a plinian eruption.
This eruption produced a 17 kilometer high ash cloud alongside pyroclastic flows which
traveled 8 kilometers away, stopping just short of a group of structures.
This eruption would later be assigned a volcanic explosivity index rating of a 4.
As you can see, Reventador is a dangerous volcano which will continue erupting for some
time.
The vast majority of its eruptions are relatively small, creating only minimal hazards for aircraft
due to quantities of ash ejected into the atmosphere.
However, as shown by its previous summit collapses and the eruption in 2002, larger eruptions
can also occur.
These eruptions appear to be typically preceded by longer than normal periods of dormancy.
These larger eruptions can generate long distance pyroclastic flows which could theoretically
travel up to 15 kilometers away.
These would not neccessarily be confined by the rim of the summit caldera.
As such, the towns labeled on screen are at risk of being wiped out by pyroclastic flows.
Additionally, any large eruption or flank collapse will create damaging mudflows termed
lahars.
These will almost certainly destroy the small community of San Rafael at some point in the
future.
Due to the canyons lahars would be funneled into, settlements more than 50 kilometers
downstream could also be put at risk.
I hope that you enjoyed this video!
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