IG-EPN reported that moderate eruptive activity continued at Reventador during 7-13 February. The seismic station recorded 27-45 daily explosive events, long-period earthquakes, episodes of harmonic tremor, and episodes of tremor associated with active degassing events. Several ash-and-gas plumes rose as high as 1.7 km above the crater rim and drifted N, SW, WSW, WNW, and NW; weather clouds often prevented visual monitoring of crater activity. The webcam monitoring system occasionally recorded episodes of crater incandescence during the night and early morning hours. Incandescent material was ejected up to 200 m above the crater during the night of 8 February, and avalanches of incandescent material descended multiple flanks as far as 600 m from the summit during 7-9 February. Secretaría de Gestión de Riesgos (SGR) maintained the Alert Level at Orange (the second highest level on a four-color scale).

Geological Summary. Volcán El Reventador is the most frequently active of a chain of Ecuadorian volcanoes in the Cordillera Real, well east of the principal volcanic axis. The forested, dominantly andesitic stratovolcano has 4-km-wide avalanche scarp open to the E formed by edifice collapse. A young, unvegetated, cone rises from the amphitheater floor to a height comparable to the rim. It has been the source of numerous lava flows as well as explosive eruptions visible from Quito, about 90 km ESE. Frequent lahars in this region of heavy rainfall have left extensive deposits on the scarp slope. The largest recorded eruption took place in 2002, producing a 17-km-high eruption column, pyroclastic flows that traveled up to 8 km, and lava flows from summit and flank vents.

Sources: Instituto Geofísico-Escuela Politécnica Nacional (IG-EPN), Secretaría de Gestión de Riesgos (SGR)