Tungurahua Volcano Starts To Play Games, So Off I Go - To The Observatory (OVT)

The OVT & Tungurahua

Of all the volcanoes I monitor here in Ecuador, Tungurahua has to be the most active of them all. It also lies quite close to some small settlements and the tourist town of Baños. For such reasons, when it starts to make some noise - it always becomes a priority for everyone involved at the Instituto Geofisico where I work and all the other groups of people involved (civil defense, military, government) who need to make sure that this bubbling beast doesn't harm anyone. For me personally - it means an absolute ton of work. As such, my research stops and all my attention is focused on real-time data from this volcano. During the middle of April, (2011) Tungurahua started to show signs of renewal in it's activity and hence my day to day events at work quickly involved a huge amount of data processing, such as producing graphs, making calculations and interpreting the information. Everything always needs to be done at the speed of a formula one racing car and it always needs to be right. Of course I enjoy all the hustle and bustle of a volcanic crisis - the pressure, the TV crews and most of all - the chance to get to the observatory.

The OVT (Observatorio Volcanologico del Tungurahua) is a volcano observatory that has been up and running for well over a decade now. Since activity resumed at Tungurahua in 1999, there have been several phases of volcanism. In recent years, for example, activity was noted in 2006, 2008 and a couple of periods during 2010. It therefore wasn't at all suprising that now in 2011 - the volcano decided it was time to shine again. This particular period of activity soon became exciting, not for the fact that is was blowing its top (it wasn't) but that it produced so much ash this time around. Areas around the volcano and beyond where coated in a layer of fine material. Since 1999 the OVT has been manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It corresponds with workers at the IG in Quito, with government officals, with our volcano watchers (local helpers) around the mountain and with the press - all for the purposes of letting the people know what the state of the volcano is at all times.

The OVT is perfectly placed. It is located in a small farm-land area called Guadeloupe not far from Tungurahua and is actually constructed within an old farm house. It has a little court-yard, a kitchen (with cook), a number of rooms for sleeping, a bodega for storing all the equipment and then the main observatory room with all the volcano monitoring machines you would expect to find. This includes seismometers, screens showing the latest rain, wind and weather patterns, a lahar monitor, two computers for calculating gas and ash emmisions, one screen with live (real-time) cameras pointed at the volcano and then gadgets such as a night-vision goggle, a thermal camera.......and so on and so forth. It also has a perfect view of the volcano, but is situated at a safe distance and position should the volcano really go off with a bang. It's a pretty cool place - if you're into your volcanoes.

Living on the farm is also an interesting experience. There was always so much food for us all, cooked to perfection by our chef. She would always cook with fresh produce too, which often included a squaking chicken that would suddenly go quiet as it entered the kitchen doors. The three or sometimes four dogs around the place would be a great source of entertainment on quiet days too, generally by their continuous mischevious behaviour. It was a fun place to hang out - thats for sure.

I hadn't been to the OVT for over a year now - so I was naturally happy to come down. People take turns in coming down and minding the fort before they are replaced a week later. I came down with Anna-Marie, my work experience helper, and Patricia (Patty) Mothes - a famous volcanologist from the States who has been living here in Ecuador for 30 years or so with her even more famous volcanologist husband, Pete Hall. She would be in charge at the OVT during this time and I would be second in command. The reason all the foreigners were coming down this week was because the President of the country decided to hold a referendum, which involved 10 questions that the people of Ecuador had to answer either yes or no to. I won't describe the utter craziness of this event or of the politics here (that will be done later) but basically voting is mandatory and everyone in the country (where-ever you are) must return to the province you were born in - to vote. It meant that on Friday and Saturday morning (voting took place Saturday) the roads all over Ecuador were in a state of utter mayhem as everyone was heading back to write on a piece of paper. As such, no Ecuadorians could be at the OVT during this time, so from Friday morning until Tuesday lunch-time, the three of us were in charge at the observatory.

Anna-Marie and I were first shown how to do a few things from the group that we were taking over from. There are many jobs to do at the Observatory, apart from just sitting around watching the volcano. Everyday the gases have to measured and calculated using a special program. You also have to keep an eye on the lahar monitors and the seimographs, and converse with the volcano helpers who are scattered all over the volcano, watching and reporting in any activity via radio. The siemograph drums need to be changed every day or so and new drum plots made. The old ones are sealed and lackered while newly made plots are created by charcoal burning a special kind of paper black, so that the needle can then rescratch in the new data. The Instituto Geofisico does have digital computer seismographs but they still like to use the old style plots. It makes taking this important information feel more real, to me at least, especially when people describe these incredibly simple but vital pieces of volcano monitoring equipment as - "measuring the pulse of the Earth". We also had to make plots which would be posted on the new information posts that go up on the website. It meant that our generally quiet days were interspersed with periods of work - which was good when you are sitting on your arse doing very little for so long.

Throughout our time at the observatory, Patty would often be talking to radio stations about what was going on with the volcano and twice, tv station crews came down to film her in action. We also had the Ecuadorian Army come down a few times - they often help when some of the IG guys go out in the field. Dealing with the military and the press is a common part of the job when you are at a volcano that just won't be quiet. The politics of volcanoes and people living on or close to them goes deep and often gets complicated. Patty told us that in the past (and occassionally now) the Mayor of Baños wants reports on the volcano's status to be 'toned-down' because it scares tourists away if they believe the volcano is too active. Patty and the policy of the IG is tell the state of the volcano with the highest of accuracy, by giving all the facts. She was often described as saying to the mayor - "you can't sweep this volcano under the bed" - and if you tried, you certainly wouldn't get much sleep!!! Dealing with these sorts of things on top of all the science that you have to do to make sure the results and ultimately the decisions that are made from those results are accurate, mean that a volcanologists life can get chaotic at best.

Tungurahua, although can technically be observed from the observatory window, will often never be seen for days as it is usually buried beneath a thick cloud. It was thus, that for the first 4 days we didn't once see the volcano that we were monitoring, apart from a few breaks on the first day. It's quite a frustrating thing, devoting all your time, day and night, to a volcano that is right in front of you but which fails to make an appearance. On our day four at the observatory, two guys from the IG came down - Roberto and Myriam. They were going up on the flanks of Tungurahua to service three stations all located in close proximity to each other at a small farming village called Pondoa. Anna-Marie and myself went along to help. One amazing thing about Tungurahua is that it is very steep. There are just 8 km from the vent to the town of Baños and in that 8 km there is a rise in elevation of 3 km. The town of Pondoa is much higher up on the flanks of the volcano than that of Baños or where we were staying in Guadeloupe, and so we had to take the steep track up in our off-road vehicle. From Pondoa, you are often up in the clouds and the views looking down and out are quite simply incredible. The Andes is a pretty breathtaking place.

We were servicing three stations - one was an an AFM (Acoustic Flow Monitor) which detects movement as increased flow (i.e. when a lahar) passes over the area. We thus jumped up and down to simulate a lahar and waited to hear whether the readings were coming through at the observatory. The second station was a tiltmeter, and which has a water detection system for highlighting increased rainfall - which may be an indication of if lahars are likely. Finally, the third station was a broadband seismometer - which picks up all the earthquake information that is given off by the volcano - this is more my field of expertise. All the stations were close to each other and little walking was required. On our way back to the observatory - Tungurahua finally appeared in full view - without a cloud in sight. For the rest of that day and into the night - we took photos with the thermal imaging camera, the night vision equipment and of course with our own camera devices. There wasn't too much activity but you could see some gas rising from the vent at times. The stars around it were also out in their thousands - and the Southern Cross perched just perfectly over the volcano for extra dramatic effect. We had a group of locals in from the nearby town of Cusua that night as well - to learn about what the observatory and the IG does, and to reassure them that they are in good hands when it comes to the volcano looming above their heads.

During our time at the IG, Patty would often be out in the field, doing one job or another, and during those times - I was in charge of the observatory. On our last day, with Patty out for the morning and no activity (or very little) during our entire time there, suddenly the volcano gave off a big explosion and ash plume. You could see the cloud of material through some breaks in the clouds. Suddenly, with me in charge, we had a hundred and one calls coming in from all angles. Patty was also on the phone as she was out there on the volcano at the time. It was all fine in the end - but it certainly gets a bit manic when something exciting happens out there. We had some heightened activity that day - which for me was all very thrilling.

The following day, the new group of people came in to take over from us, and we headed back to Quito. It was a fantastic experience, living and working at a volcano observatory, especially when you have some activity. There is a fair amount of responsibility, which I certainly felt when I was there. I was constantly data processing information for the reports and website alerts. Gas measurements, changing seimograph plots, lahar monitoring - it all has to be done to keep things ticking over. Anna-Marie and I did get a chance to escape though, not just in the field but for a night out in Baños too. Its only a 15-20 minute drive away and although I had been there 4 or 5 times already - its always a nice place to head back to.

We arived back to Quito on the Tuesday evening. It was back to work for me the next day, with more data processing and research on Tungurahua. There really is no rest when you deal with active volcanoes...............but then I didn't get into this line of work to rest!!!