IG-EPN reported that the eruption at Reventador was ongoing during 10-17 October. Seismicity was characterized by 15-43 daily explosions, long-period earthquakes, harmonic tremor, and tremor associated with emissions. Several daily ash-and-gas plumes rose as high as 1.3 km above the crater rim and drifted in multiple directions. Daily crater incandescence was visible during both overnight and morning hours. Incandescent material was ejected as high as 600 m above the crater rim several times during 10-11 October. Avalanches of incandescent material descended the flanks, concentrating down the SE flank during the beginning of the week, and traveling as far as 800 m from the summit. Weather conditions sometimes prevented views of the volcano. Secretaría de Gestión de Riesgos maintained the Alert Level at Orange (the second highest level on a four-color scale).

Geological Summary. Volcán El Reventador is the most frequently active of a chain of Ecuadorian volcanoes in the Cordillera Real, well east of the principal volcanic axis. The forested, dominantly andesitic stratovolcano has 4-km-wide avalanche scarp open to the E formed by edifice collapse. A young, unvegetated, cone rises from the amphitheater floor to a height comparable to the rim. It has been the source of numerous lava flows as well as explosive eruptions visible from Quito, about 90 km ESE. Frequent lahars in this region of heavy rainfall have left extensive deposits on the scarp slope. The largest recorded eruption took place in 2002, producing a 17-km-high eruption column, pyroclastic flows that traveled up to 8 km, and lava flows from summit and flank vents.

Sources: Instituto Geofísico-Escuela Politécnica Nacional (IG-EPN), Secretaría de Gestión de Riesgos (SGR)