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 Sumaco

Sumaco Volcano is part of the Ecuadorian Andies it is located 105 km east of the capital city of Quito, Ecuador. Sumaco is a srtratovolcano the peak sits at 3,828 meters in elevation. The volcano's most recent eruption dates back to 1933. The three most recent eruptions (1933, 1895, 1650) have all been explosive. Sumaco is unique from the other volcanoes in the Andes, because it is one the only volcano to produce a alkaline lava.(Barragan et al. 1998) Sumaco Volcano is not widely studies, there have only been a handfull of papers published on the subject.

The image is of the summit of Sumaco volcano we took on the expedition in December 2011.

 

Barragan, Roberto, et al. "Subduction controls on the compositions of lavas from the Ecuadorian 
     Andes." Earth and Planetary Science Letters 154 (1998): 153-166. Print.