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Report on Sangay (Ecuador) — 2 September-8 September 2020


Sangay

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 2 September-8 September 2020
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2020. Report on Sangay (Ecuador) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 2 September-8 September 2020. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (2 September-8 September 2020)

Sangay

Ecuador

2.005°S, 78.341°W; summit elev. 5286 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


IG reported a high level of activity at Sangay during 2-8 September. Seismicity was characterized by high levels of explosions, harmonic tremor, long-period earthquakes, and signals indicating emissions. Weather clouds often prevented visual observations of the volcano, but the Washington VAAC and IG webcams recorded daily ash plumes that rose 600-1,500 m above the summit and drifted NW, W, and S. Lahars were periodically generated by heavy rains. On 2 September pyroclastic flows descended the SE flank.

Geological Summary. The isolated Sangay volcano, located east of the Andean crest, is the southernmost of Ecuador's volcanoes and its most active. The steep-sided, glacier-covered, dominantly andesitic volcano grew within the open calderas of two previous edifices which were destroyed by collapse to the east, producing large debris avalanches that reached the Amazonian lowlands. The modern edifice dates back to at least 14,000 years ago. It towers above the tropical jungle on the east side; on the other sides flat plains of ash have been eroded by heavy rains into steep-walled canyons up to 600 m deep. The earliest report of an eruption was in 1628. Almost continuous eruptions were reported from 1728 until 1916, and again from 1934 to the present. The almost constant activity has caused frequent changes to the morphology of the summit crater complex.

Source: Instituto Geofísico-Escuela Politécnica Nacional (IG-EPN)