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Report on Reventador (Ecuador) — January 1976


Reventador

Natural Science Event Bulletin, vol. 1, no. 4 (January 1976)
Managing Editor: David Squires.

Reventador (Ecuador) Explosive eruption begins on 4 January; lava flows enter the jungle

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1976. Report on Reventador (Ecuador) (Squires, D., ed.). Natural Science Event Bulletin, 1:4. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.NSEB197601-352010



Reventador

Ecuador

0.077°S, 77.656°W; summit elev. 3562 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


An explosive eruption began during the early morning of 4 January. At dawn an ash column 1 km high was observed. Fine ash was carried W and SW over the Andes, dusting Quito through 10 January. Bombs blown 100 m vertically from the crater were large enough to be seen by the naked eye from a distance of 3 km. Strange seismic signatures, detected 90 km away (at Quito) and attributed to Reventador, began at 0115 on 4 January and continued until 0900 on 9 January. A portable seismograph 10 km from the cone measured continuous harmonic tremor.

Two lava flows descended from the breached crater and divided into three lobes at the base of the cone. During the first 40 hours flows traveled approximately 1.5 km E at 37 m/hour. By 9 January the three lobes had traveled 2.5 km and were advancing approximately 5 m/hour over lahar deposits and jungle. As of 27 January the lava flows had stopped, but infrequent explosive activity, including nuées ardentes, was continuing. The continual ash column had terminated by 25 January. The flows were a black basaltic andesite with olivine, augite, hypersthene, and oxyhornblende.

Reventador had similar eruptions in July 1972 and November 1973. When last visited before the current eruption, on 10 December 1975, it was producing a large steam column.

Further Reference. Hall, M.L., 1980, El Reventador, Ecuador: un volcán activo de los Andes Septentrionales: Revista Politécnica, v. 5, no. 2, p. 123-136.

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.

Information Contacts: M. Hall, Escuela Politécnica, Quito.