The Instituto Geofísico-Escuela Politécnica Nacional (IG-EPN) reported that eruptive activity at Reventador continued at a high level during 8-14 April. Seismicity included 58-90 daily explosions, long-period earthquakes, harmonic tremor, and tremor associated with emissions. Ash-and-gas plumes were not visible in webcam images due to weather conditions but were identified in satellite images on most or all days, rising 700-1,500 m above the crater rim and drifting mainly NW, W, and WSW, but sometimes in other directions. Thermal anomalies were identified in satellite images on a few of the days. Secretaría de Gestión de Riesgos (SGR) maintained the Alert Level at Orange (the second highest level on a four-color scale).

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

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.