Report on Sangay (Ecuador) — January 2010
Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 35, no. 1 (January 2010)
Managing Editor: Richard Wunderman.
Sangay (Ecuador) Occasional ash plumes and thermal anomalies continue into at least February 2010
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2010. Report on Sangay (Ecuador) (Wunderman, R., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 35:1. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN201001-352090
Sangay
Ecuador
2.005°S, 78.341°W; summit elev. 5286 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
Sangay, which has been in near constant eruption for centuries, continued its eruptive activity into 2010. Previous reports on Sangay (BGVN 33:03, 34:01, and 34:06) had documented occasional ash plumes through 31 July and thermal anomalies through 10 August 2009. After almost two months with no indications of observed by satellite, both plumes and thermal anomalies resumed on 4 October 2009 (tables 5 and 6). Intermittent observations of plumes and MODVOLC thermal alerts were made every month afterwards through February 2010.
Table 5. Sangay ash plumes recorded during August 2009-February 2010. TA indicates a thermal anomaly noted by a VAAC analyst. No plumes were observed during 24 July-3 October 2009. Courtesy of the Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC).
| Date | Maximum Altitude | Bearing | Remarks |
| 04 Oct 2009 | 5.2-7.6 km | W | -- |
| 15 Oct 2009 | -- | SW | Seen for ~15 km |
| 16 Nov 2009 | -- | WNW | TA detected |
| 01 Dec 2009 | 7.9 km | W | Eruption reported |
| 18, 21 Dec 2009 | 7.9 km | W | TAs detected |
| 02-03 Jan 2010 | 7 km | NW | TAs 2-4 January |
| 14 Jan 2010 | 7.3 km | -- | -- |
| 02 Feb 2010 | 8.2 km | -- | -- |
| 22 Feb 2010 | 7.6 km | -- | -- |
Table 6. Thermal alerts issued for Sangay by the MODVOLC system during August 2009-February 2010 (continued from the list in BGVN 34:06). Courtesy HIGP Thermal Alerts System.
| Date (UTC) | Time (UTC) | Pixels | Satellite |
| 04 Oct 2009 | 0345 | 1 | Terra |
| 06 Oct 2009 | 0330 | 1 | Terra |
| 10 Nov 2009 | 0700 | 1 | Aqua |
| 16 Nov 2009 | 0325 | 2 | Terra |
| 02 Dec 2009 | 0325 | 1 | Terra |
| 21 Dec 2009 | 0655 | 1 | Aqua |
| 01 Jan 2010 | 0640 | 1 | Aqua |
| 03 Jan 2010 | 0325 | 2 | Terra |
| 04 Jan 2010 | 0710 | 1 | Aqua |
| 25 Feb 2010 | 0345 | 1 | Terra |
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.
Information Contacts: Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB), NOAA/NESDIS E/SP23, NOAA Science Center Room 401, 5200 Auth Rd, Camp Springs, MD 20746, USA (URL: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/atmosphere/vaac/); Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) Thermal Alerts System, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), Univ. of Hawai'i, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA (URL: http://modis.higp.hawaii.edu/).
