Residents of several towns and small town in the Ecuadorian Andes are currently on tenterhook as towering feather of smoke and ash hollo from the crater ofTungurahua . The vent is 5,000 - meterss - high ( 16,400 - ft ) , and has been combat-ready since 1999 , follow eight decades of dormancy .
The volcano ’s lastmajor eruptionoccurred in 2006 , when the nearby villages of Chilibu , Choglontuz , and Palitagua were pass over out as lava , gasoline , and ash tree were sick some 8 kilometre ( 5 miles ) into the air . At present tense , government authorities have not send word local occupier to evacuate their homes , as the extent of the current eruption has not yet hit a level deemed menace to their natural selection .
This is despitereportsof smoking and ash cloud reaching heights of up to 7 km ( 4.35 miles ) , and the generation ofpyroclastic flow . These are made of a mixture of magma , ash , hot lava blocks and gasolene , and typically move at very gamey amphetamine down volcanic slope .
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Since the turn of the Millennium , a newlava domehas been building up within Tungurahua ’s crater , form by the ejection of viscous magma through the volcanic venthole . These are not commonly pressurized enough to create violent outbreak , although they can generate pyroclastic flow if too much magma accumulates .
For this reason , locals are not overly worried about the latest striking ontogenesis , although official are fain to act fleetly should the berth escalate . According to some news outlet , a stratum of volcanic ash has already settled upon vast swathes of nearby tilled land , stick a likely threat to the local economy by disrupt cattle and Indian corn land .
Pedro Espín , a volcanologist from the Tungurahua Volcano Observatory , says he expect this natural action to keep without step up into a major blast . However , he warns that there is a small chance of a new injection of magma , which could beget important pyroclastic menstruum and threaten the existence of some nearby villages such as Pillate and Chontapamba .
