Tungurahua Volcano Kick´s Into Life

Working At The Monitoring Station

On the Monday that I found out one of my friends had been put into jail, I also got a shock at work. I arrived back on the 4th Jan, but since the beginning of the month, while I was in Montañita, Tungurahua Volcano had suddenly started showing signs of increased activity. Tungurahua is a large strato-volcano which has in the past showed high energy, explosive activity. It started erupting again in 1999, but has been active since that time, going off on a relatively large scale in 2006 and 2008. The last eruption produced a pyroclastic flow that killed 8 people. This is a dangerous volcano. Tungurahua is located about three and a half hours drive south of Quito, surrounded by a number of small villages but also the town of Baños, populated by 14,000 people and a popular tourist spot.

The seismic data coming through on that Monday was alarming, far higher than the previous month that I had been working at IG, and things were going to get worse. Over the next few days, the volcano stepped up in activity. Everyone in the Institute was running around frantically, checking data and making calculations. I was the same. The press were in talking to the main volcanologists about what was happening there, as local people quickly knew that the volcano was making noise. That weekend I was asked if I wanted to go to the volcano to check it out - of course I did.

Two of us set off. It was a work trip. We first had to head to Cotopaxi Volcano, located about an hour and a half south of the capital. Sitting at 5900m (asl), it´s one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. While it´s considered active (the IG monitor it closely), it´s not currently at the same level as Tungurahua, it´s safe enough even to climb to the summit and many people do. We have a number of seismic monitoring stations around both volcanoes, but one of the stations on Tungurahua wasn´t operating because it was missing a piece of equipment called a digitizer. So we had to collect one from one of the stations on Cotopaxi.

We have a large 4x4 vehicle and it was needed. We entered the Cotopaxi National Park and went through a gate closed to the general public. We then had to travel across rocky terrain and shrubs to get to the station. The vehicle was never once level. The ride was so bumpy, I actually cut my shoulder on the seatbelt. It was cold up there but the views over the surrounding area was incredible. You couldn´t see the volcano though because it was shrouded in cloud. It often is. We took the digitizer from the station and headed off to the next volcano.

Because of the high activity of Tungurahua over the last decade, the IG now has a permanent volcano monitoring station. It´s located about 10 minutes drive from Baños, in a location which is perfect for viewing the volcano but safe from any potential hazards. It has a main work room, but also a kitchen and a number of rooms each with a series of beds for the workers. There are batteries and solar panels operating, so the power never cuts out and there are always two people monitoring the volcano, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That was our destination.

Because of the high activity, there were about 5 people already there. Computer screens reading off all sorts of data. We have a number of helpers (mechanics, secretaries, doctors) all around the mountain too, who watch the volcano from their home and radio in to us when they see or hear any activity. The volcano is often covered in cloud, so you often can´t see it. While I was there I only got a glimse of it once, but on a clear day you can apparently see a plume emerging from the crater. At night, only once we saw an orange glow of lava, but the IG also has a night vision goggle - through it you can see everything. Lava was being ejected balistically from the summit and often it was followed by explosions, which would rumble aloud like thunder. Only the military and the IG have the night vision goggle - I don´t know how but I must obtain one. On the odd occassions the explosions were so powerful that the windows would shake. We sat around a round table all night, drinking rum and coke and chatting. Everyone would tell me stories of Tungurahua over the last few years, and some of the close calls they had had when they were working out on it´s flanks, with some people just getting off before an eruption. Our helpers would stay up all night too, often getting drunk themselves so that their radio calls would become more slurred as the night went on. All the time our computers displayed high seismic data that was coming from the mountain we were looking at.

Around 3.30am, three policemen turn up. They had been sent by the Governor of Baños asking if the town should be evacuated. The noises from the volcano were scaring the locals and tourists alike. It doesn´t matter how many times we tell the authorities they always ask us what they should do. The problem is it isn´t our job to say evacuate or not. All we can do is give them the information we have and the likelihood of an eruption, but only the authorities can decide whether to evacuate 14,000 people or not. We are scientists and we can only give informed opinions, the rest is not our responsibility. we told them we didn´t think the volcano would erupt in a big way - at least not tonight. Actually the problem was, that in 2006 and 2008, the volcano had produced steady signs which could easily be read and a warning and evacuation issued. This time though the signs were erractic. Levels increased dramatically and fast, so we weren´t really sure what was happening at least in terms of timing an eruption. We did know that seismic activity had increased and we were getting a lot of Long Period Events which are a common type of volcano earthquake before an eruption - it generally means magma is on the move. Gas levels and temperatures had also risen and there was now some ground deformation too, but we still didn´t think it would blow tonight.

The next morning, we headed to the flanks of the volcano, near the small town of Bilbao. It takes about 20 minutes from the observatory. We drove over old pyroclastic flow and lahar deposits. If the volcano blew now we were driving over dangerous areas. A farmer took us up to the well hidden seismic station. From here you still couldn´t see the volcano but you could hear it - it was loud, like a constant thunder but with no lightning or rain. Up here, you sort of pray the volcano isn´t ready to go, because if it did, we would have to get out and fast. We have a radio connected to the Tungurahua Observatory and to IG in Quito at all times. We fixed the digitizer. While we successfully got the infrasonic going (that picks up low frequency sound made by the volcano), we had forgotten a cable to get the seismic data going. Just one cable!!! It had meant that we would have to drive 3 hours back to Cotopaxi, get the cable and then drive all the way back to Tungurahua to fix it. It would add another 7 hours to complete our job. Just one cable!!! So thats what we did. We headed all the way back to Cotopaxi, over the rocky terrain again, picked up our cable and then headed back to the active mountain. I know that strech of the country so well now. By the time we got back to the observatory with the cable, it was late, so the guys staying on said they would fix it the following day. We took the 4 hour drive back to Quito.

A few weeks earlier I had moved from The Secret Garden hostel to just over the road - a place called Guayunga hostel. It´s run by an amazing Ecuadorian family, who are incredibly nice. Because I have agreed to stay long term, they have given me my own huge room, on-suite bathroom, couch, television (only Spanish channels though) and all for just US$6 a night. My room is cleaned everyday and I get free internet. Many long termers stay here and when you want to party you just go up to The Secret Garden, because it is a bar and restaurant anyway and I know all the workers so well now they just let me in whenever I want a few drinks. I have been here longer than any volunteer worker or backpacker staying in The Secret Garden now. That day, if we hadn´t forgotten that cable I would have been back in my new hostel by 2pm, but because of the delay, I didn´t get back till midnight. However, luck must of been on my side, because at 8pm that night, two men with guns came into the hostel and stole two computers. They were aparently doing a sweep of the hostels in the area. They didn´t take anything from rooms, just the front desk but it´s horrible to know that I could have beeen there when it was all happening. Guayunga hostel have now put in a lot more security.

Well that really completed my week. In seven days I helped bail a friend out of jail, I had installed monitoring equipment on the flanks of a volcano suddenly showing signs of eruption and then I come back and find my hostel has been raided by men with guns. I will never forget telling this all to my parents a day or so later and then asking them how there week was!!!

Since that week, the volcano has stepped up in activity again. Volcanic bombs have now been observed shooting out a kilometer above the crater. Strombolian activity is common, and people in Baños continue to have their windows shaken. The volcano still hasn´t gone off explosively (and dangerously) yet and so there have currently been no evacuations. The time may yet come though, we are still monitoring it intensively, I guess we will just have to wait and see............