The nation of Ecuador contains more than a dozen active volcanoes.
Two of these, Reventador and Sangay, are erupting right now.
Although these two volcanoes have produced large explosive eruptions, they simply do
not compare to the volcano which is the topic of this video.
The volcano in question is known as Quilotoa, which produced one of the largest eruptions
on the planet of the last 2,000 years.
Its cataclysmic eruption occurred in 1280 AD, resulting in the partial collapse of the
volcano.
This collapse formed a 3 kilometer wide and 250 meter deep caldera.
It is one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the continent, and could be rightfully
called the South American Mount Pinatubo.
This video will discuss this volcano, and mention what its future hazards are.
The Quilotoa volcano can be found in north central Ecuador, where it is 90 kilometers
southwest of the nation's capital, Quito.
This impressive volcano is a sight to behold, and stands at 3,914 meters or 12,841 feet
above sea level.
However, it used to be an even taller volcano, standing at 4400 meters in height a mere 1,000
years ago.
Before I discuss this volcano further, I need to clarify what I mean by the South American
Mount Pinatubo.
For a quick reference, Mount Pinatubo is located in the Phillipines, and partially collapsed
during a caldera forming eruption in 1991.
Mount Pinatubo undergoes a cycle of dormancy for several thousand years, then produces
a caldera forming eruption, after which it becomes dormant once again, thus continuing
this cycle.
Just like Mount Pinatubo, Quilotoa also undergoes the same cycle of volcanic activity.
In this case, this cycle lasts approximately 14,000 years, and always ends in a major explosive
eruption.
Between these major eruptions, only small scale infrequent volcanic eruptions occur.
This cycle of activity began 200,000 years ago, when a volume of dacite lava erupted
onto a plateau of the vast Andes Mountain range.
Since the dacite lava had a high viscosity, it was unable to travel very far, causing
the erupted molten rock to begin building into a lava dome.
Over the next several thousand years, additional eruptions occurred, causing groups of lava
domes to be emplaced on top of one another in what is termed a lava dome complex.
Eventually, the volume of dacite rock on top of the volcano became too thick, preventing
excess gasses from the underlying magma from escaping.
This caused an immense amount of pressure to build, until finally a massive eruption
occurred.
This large eruption devastated the surrounding landscape, destroyed much of the existing
volcanic edifice, and was rated on the volcanic explosivity index as between a 4 and 6, where
a 5 is the rating assigned to the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens.
Afterwards, this cycle began again, as a group of new lava domes began to be constructed.
In the last 200,000 years, at least 8 of these cycles have taken place, all of which resulted
in destructive eruptions.
The most recent of these occurred in 1280 AD.
This eruption caused a 40 kilometer high plume of ash to shoot into the atmosphere, while
pyroclastic flows swept across the landscape, reaching up to 13 kilometers distant.
These flows and superheated falling ash devastated approximately 1,000 square kilometers of land.
Then, due to the vast amount of ash ejected, a 3 kilometer wide section of the volcano
collapsed downwards by several hundred meters, forming a vast caldera.
The scope of destruction meant numerous indigenous settlements were buried by ash, forcing their
abandonment.
As you might expect, these native peoples directly witnessed this eruption, which was
ingrained into one of their legends.
This legend told in part that the fearsome god Quilotoa emerged from the center of the
volcano, destroying everything in his path in a circular radius.
The eruption which had just occurred ejected 11 cubic kilometers of volcanic rock, and
was approximately the same size as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
The volcano would not erupt again until the 1700s, when it produced 4 moderately sized
phreatic eruptions within the crater lake.
The next eruption from this volcano will also likely be phreatic in nature, and is quite
likely to occur in the next century.
Such an eruption could cause a path of destruction in a several kilometer radius, meaning that
if warning signs of an imminent eruption occurred, everyone in a 10 kilometer radius would need
to be evacuated.
I hope that you enjoyed this video!
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