Ecuador Volcanoes Expedition, 2010

Welcome to the website for our Ecuador Volcano Expedition, 2010! Thanks to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Interanational Science and Engineering (OISE) for funding our expedition of discovery. Our team consists of scientists and students from California State University Los Angeles, the University of Wyoming, the University of South Carlolina and the Instituto de Geofisico in Quito Ecuador,teaming up with classrooms in the U.S.A and Ecuador to bring science from the field into the classroom.

 

Volcan El Reventador ("The Exploder")

El Reventador Volcano is located 90 km east of the capital city of Quito, Ecuador. The volcano was quiet for 26 years until it produced a large eruption and pyroclastic flow in 2002 (Theofilos and Aguilera, 2004; Allesandro, 2004 ). This new active vent of El Reventador is nested within the caldera of the previously existing volcano, and the eruption in 2002 created the present day crater that is open to the southeast (figure from Hall el al., 2004).

crater

The ongoing volcanic activity has produced lava flows nearly continuously since then, and samples were collected in 2008 for this study, including amphibole-bearing cumulate xenoliths.  Recently published data (Sameniego et al, 2008) show that the El Reventador lavas comprise calc-alkaline andesites (55-57 wt. % SiO2).  The most recent lavas from the 2010 eruption are flowing down the north flank of the volcano as well as in the main crater. We will hike into the crater of El Reventador from the southeast and the north on established trails.

 

fig 2

 

Alessandro, T. (2004). Summit verses flank eruptions and diking in multiple sector collapsed volcanoes. Abstracts with Programs, 32nd IGC, Florence.

Hall, Minard, Ramón, Patricio, Mothes, Patricia, LePennec, Jean Luc, García, Alexander, Samaniego Pablo and Yepes, Hugo. (2004), Volcanic eruptions with little warning: the case of Volcán Reventador's Surprise November 3, 2002 Eruption, Ecuador, Revista Geológica de Chile, Vol. 31, No. 2, p. 349-358.

Samaniego, P., Eissen, J.-P., Pennec, J.-L. L., Robin, C., Hall, M. L., Mothes, P., Chavrit, D. & Cotten, J. (2008). Pre-eruptive physical conditions of El Reventador volcano (Ecuador) inferred from the petrology of the 2002 and 2004-05 eruptions. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 89, 1-12.

Theofilos, T. & Aguilera, E. (2004). Unexpected partial flank collapse at El Reventador, Ecuador. Abstracts with Programs, 32nd IGC, Florence.