Quito – Eruptions of Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano caused thousands of locals to flee nearby villages situated in the path of ash and molten lava.
The Geophysics Institute of the National Polytechnic School which has been observing the volcanic activity reported Monday that emissions of gas have continued since Friday when the volcano produced the strongest explosion of its current eruption cycle which began in 1999.
Hugo Yepez, director of the Geophysics Institute, said that Sunday night through Monday morning the volcano emitted towering plumes of gases and ash while powerful explosions were heard.
The explosions, Yepez said, have generated “pyroclastic flows”, a scientific term for the emergence of lava and rock fragments flowing down the mountain. These occurred particularly on the southwestern side of the crater.
Lava has devastated several agricultural areas and villages close to the mountain, forcing more than a thousand families in the region to evacuate, principally those directly in the path of the molten rock.
The director of the Geophysics Institute compared Tungurahua’s current eruption with that of 1918, rated a catastrophe by some Ecuadorian historians.
According to Yepez, the 1918 eruption set off an 11-month period of at least five episodes of high volatility such as is occurring on the mountain now, which leads him to believe that the volcano will remain active for several weeks or months.
Scientists said that current volatility is the greatest since 1918.
The volcanic process is “like heating milk until it boils over,” Yepez said, adding that the Tungurahua system is fed by a small, constant flow of magma, the molten rock material under the earth’s crust.
The phenomenon threatens more than 20,000 people who live near the 5,029-meter-high (16,489-foot-high) volcano located 135 kilometers (85 miles) south of Quito, while authorities have reported that some 5,000 evacuees from the highest risk areas have sought safer ground.
Civil defense director for Tungurahua province Mauro Rodriguez told EFE that about a thousand families have been evacuated from the area of Cusua and Bilbao.
At the same time he said that shelters have been set up in the towns of Penipe, Cotalo and elsewhere and added that many peasants who have been evacuated decided to go home just long enough to rescue animals and some of their belongings.
Scores of cattle and other farm animals have died as avalanches of lava and soil from the crater poured down the mountain ravines.
Residents in some areas near the volcano said a light, porous lava known as pumice had fallen, and there were also reports of falling ash and a strong sulfur odor in the cities of Guaranda and Riobamba.
The Geophysics Institute said it was possible for the ash to also reach the city of Guayaquil, the country’s largest with 2.1 million inhabitants.
“What we need most is food for the livestock” since the ash belched out by the volcano has covered vast areas of pasture with a layer more than 5 centimeters (2 inches) thick, Rodriguez said.
The province’s civil defense chief said that public health has also been affected, with many evacuees suffering from diarrhea and respiratory infections caused by the ash.
