Volcanic activity

Citation

(2008), "Volcanic activity", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 17 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2008.07317ead.003

Volcanic activity

Article Type: Disaster database From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 17, Issue 5

17 August 2006 Mount Tungurahua, Ecuador

Mount Tungurahua volcano has erupted in Ecuador, blasting huge flows of lava out of its crater and sending ash into the sky. Appealing for help, a local mayor said one person had been killed and another 60 people were believed to be missing. The Tungurahua volcano, located about 130 km south of Quito, began erupting yesterday and activity intensified overnight. The Ecuadorian authorities, on alert since recent seismic activity, have managed to evacuate hundreds of people. Local mayor Juan Salazar said that the situation was “extremely grave.” He said the villages of Bilbao and Penipe had suffered heavy damage and those of Chilibu, Chogloctuz and Palitagua had been “wiped out.” Frightened villagers have been fleeing the area, protecting themselves as best they can from falling debris with blankets or buckets covering their heads as they make their way down the mountainside. President Alfredo Palacio is due to visit the area to assess the damage. Volcanologist Alexandra Alvarado said the volcano was emitting “a constant eruption with an abundance of ash and a great number of explosions.” A scientist with the national geophysics institute said the volcano had calmed down in the past few hours but a new cycle could begin at any moment.

18 August 2006

The Tungurahua volcano eruption has wiped out three villages and killed at least five people. The volcano was still unleashing a blast of gas and ash late yesterday that reached five miles into the sky. The ash cloud reached almost all the way from the Andes to the Pacific, forcing flights from Quito to Ecuador’s largest city of Guayaquil to be suspended due to poor visibility, said Quito’s airport chief, Rene Estrella. The volcano, which is 84 miles south of Quito, continues to shower incandescent rock and lava on nearby villages. The violent eruption began on Wednesday evening (August 16). An earlier report said that there are approximately 60 people missing in the highest-risk area, as well as seven injured, who were taken to the city of Riobamba, and six others wounded in Penipe, Penipe Mayor Juan Salazar told Ecuavisa television. One man’s body was recovered after the overnight eruption. “Four of the bodies cannot be found because they are buried under the debris,” Mr. Salazar said. They are presumed dead. Mr. Salazar added, “We suffered 18 continuous hours of fire.” After remaining dormant for eight decades, Tungurahua rumbled back to life in 1999 and has been active ever since, registering booming explosions in May that shattered windows in outlying communities. About 3,700 people living on the volcano’s slopes were ordered to evacuate in July after a sharp spike in the eruptive force, but many later returned.

22 August 2006

More than a million Ecuadorians have been affected by the eruption of the Tungurahua Volcano last Thursday (August 17), the government reported today. The government declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Bolivar, Chimborazo and Tungurahua, after the 5,029-metre volcano threw ash and burning rock into the stratosphere, affecting over one million people, almost 454,000 in Tungurahua and 403,632 in Chimborazo. The rescue agency said at least five people died and three more went missing. The latter were also presumed dead. The lava injured 65 people, of whom five suffered serious burns, it added. The bodies of four people have been found. A fifth person died in hospital, the agency said. The eruption has destroyed more than 40,000 hectares of crops in Chimborazo alone. In addition, 50,000 poultry were also killed in the disaster. Hugo Yepez, director of Ecuador’s Geophysics Institute, told the media today that the volcanic activity was calming. But he warned that an increasing warp on the north face of the mountain showed that it was continuing to accumulate lava. It could lead to an even larger explosion than Thursday’s eruption, he said. Tungurahua has not erupted or shown signs of seismic activity since Thursday, and the crater was showing signs of deflation. “Probably the volcano will continue like this until there is a new up-thrust of volcanic material,” he said.