Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Steele - Week 4 - Volcanoes - Cotopaxi

This week I visited Cotopaxi in Ecuador. While it’s located on the 
South American plate, it’s more importantly located in the 
‘Ring of Fire’. Characterized by massive amounts of plate 
movements, most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic 
eruptions occur here. A very likely reason it exists where it does! 
  Cotopaxi has not only erupted recently, but many times in the last 
200 years! Once again, it’s location on the ‘Ring of Fire’ is a key 
explanation as to its’ activity. Most recently it erupted in August ‘15 to 
January 16’. While not much damage was caused during the eruption,
 It does score a six on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). This implies 
it’s very explosive and dangerous. 
There are significant hazards associated with Cotopaxi. Firstly, 
it has a large ice cap that melts when the volcano erupts. This can cause 
lahars, or flows of mud containing pyroclastic rocks, water, and of course 
mud. Entire cities have been buried under mud from lahars in the past, 
which segways into the next problem. Quito and Latacunga are both close 
enough to it, that with a sufficiently large explosion, they would be destroyed. 
Quioto is Ecuador’s most populated city and Latacunga has actually been 
destroyed twice already by lahars from the volcano. Cotopaxi is extremely 
likely to erupt again. Nothing about its’ past or location would suggest 
otherwise. It was pretty incredible to see such a powerful volcano! Not to 
mention one of my favorite painters has painted it (picture below!). 




Cotopaxi, by Frederic Church (1862)

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