Tungurahua Volcano Blows Its Top

Tungurahua Eruption - May 2010

On the day I ran off to pay the fees for my new work Visa, 4 hours south of Quito something big was about to happen. I arrived at work early on Friday 28th May, 2010. I was in by 8am and started immediately on the processing of seismic data from the Tungurahua Volcano.

In January this particular volcanic zone had kicked into life, producing hundreds of explosions, ejecting material and showing increases in deformation and gas production. A few months later however, it went quiet without ever actually erupting. Then we saw nothing, not a single explosion, until the 26th May, 2010. Just two days earlier a large bang was heard from the volcano and it concerned us. It wasn´t followed by anything else that day but a large expolsion like the one we saw that day is enough to make any volcanologist double check their seismic signals. It was sudden, unexpected and we didnt really know what it´s significance was. We found out two days later.

At about 8.30am I leave to sort out my visa - I still had to pay my fees so off I went, perhaps for the 800th time, to the immigration office. By the time I had returned at about 10.30am - Tungurahua Volcano had erupted (above photo courtesy of Robert Gibson, who sent all of us at the Instituto some amazing snaps).

The Instituto Geofisico was pretty chaotic. People were running around all over the place. Data was coming in fast from all angles as our seismic instruments scratched little squiggly lines frantically. Many people were already packing their gear to head down there. For me however, I was responsible for seismic processing of this volcano and as data was speedily coming through I was assigned to start making calculations, graphs and tables of the many explosions that were starting to appear. I spent that day continually calling my boss, Mario, updating him on his cell phone on what the signals were doing and what the graphs were showing - as he drove down to the volcano.

The press got word pretty much straight away and so within perhaps an hour they were in talking to the Institute Director , Hugo Yepez. Camera´s were everywhere filming our instruments and recording interviews for the Ecuadorian news. I admit I spent a small amount of my time trying to get my face on TV. The news of the eruption eventually made it world-wide, appearing on the front page of the BBC website.

Over the next few days the volcano was in its most active phase. Explosions increased to hundreds per day. I couldnt keep up with it. The explosions sent out shock waves, which caused windows to brake in towns around the volcano. An immediate evacuation was put in place on some of those small villages. Pyroclastic flows were observed and an ash cloud rose from the active crater which was later blown south-east, covering large parts of the coast and Ecuador´s largest city, Guayaquil, in a fine layer of ash. For a few days, airports were shut in the south of the country, halting some internal flights and a few heading to Peru. Coincidentally, at around the same time period a large volcanic eruption in Guatemala caused chaos in flights heading north out of Ecuador, so the country was essentially sandwiched between two volcanic ash clouds, causing mayhem.

Over the following days activity slowed down, but it wouldn´t be until June 15th more or less, that the volcano really went quiet again. Everyday, even now (at the end of June), we still have meetings on Tungurahua, trying to understand what the volcano is doing and what it might do in the future. We can certainly not say that the volcano has finished it´s erupted sequence, but for now, it is at least taking a rest.

There was only one fatality caused by the most recent eruption at Tungurahua. A man in Guayaquil, a city some hours south of the volcano, fell off his roof while trying to sweep off the accumulation of ash!!! Volcanic eruptions can have far reaching effects and often in the most unexpected ways.

For all of us here at the Institute, our job is certainly not over. We will continue to watch closely over the coming months to see what this active volcano does next. For us volcanologists - it has already taken us on quite a ride.