Cotopaxi () is an active
stratovolcano
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...
in the
Andes Mountains
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...
, located near
Latacunga city of
Cotopaxi Province, about south of
Quito
Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...
, and northeast of the city of
Latacunga,
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
.
[ It is the second highest ]summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...
in Ecuador (after Chimborazo
Chimborazo () is a stratovolcano situated in Ecuador in the Cordillera Occidental (Ecuador), Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known Types of volcanic eruptions, eruption is believed to have occurred around AD 550. Although not ...
), reaching a height of . Cotopaxi is among the highest active volcanoes in the world.
Cotopaxi is known to have erupted 87 times, resulting in the creation of numerous valleys formed by lahar
A lahar (, from ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of Pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a valley, river valley.
Lahars are o ...
s (mudflows) around the volcano.[ An ongoing eruption began on 21 October 2022.]
At the end of February 2023, the Geophysical Institute of Ecuador reported that Cotopaxi had produced around 8,000 earthquakes since October 21, 2022, amounting to 1,600 events per month.
Description
On a clear day, Cotopaxi is clearly visible on the skyline from Latacunga and Quito
Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...
. It is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific Plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has an almost symmetrical cone that rises from a highland plain of about , with a width at its base of about . It has one of the few equatorial glacier
A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
s in the world, which starts at the height of . At its summit, Cotopaxi has an wide crater which is deep. The crater consists of two concentric crater rims, the outer one being partly free of snow and irregular in shape. The crater interior is covered with ice cornices and rather flat. The highest point is on the outer rim of the crater on the north side.
History
Name
According to locals who speak Quechua, ''coto'' means 'neck' and ''paxi'' means 'moon' (Quechua ''q'oto'' 'throat' + Aymara ''phakhsi'' 'moon'). This refers to the crater of Cotopaxi that looks like a crescent moon. The mountain was honored as a sacred mountain by local Andean people, even before the Inca invasion in the 15th century. It was worshiped as rain sender, which served as the guarantor of the land's fertility, and at the same time its summit was revered as a place where gods lived.
Historic eruptions
With 87 known eruptions, Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador's most active volcanoes.[ Its first recorded eruption was in 1534. This eruption appears to have deposited an ash layer in the lakes of El Cajas National Park that has been dated to 450±70 cal BP.
Cotopaxi's most violent eruptions in historical times occurred in the years 1742, 1744, 1768, and 1877. The 1744 and 1768 events destroyed the colonial town of Latacunga. During the June 26, 1877 eruption, pyroclastic flows descended on all sides of the mountain melting the entire ice cap, with lahars traveling more than into the ]Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
and western Amazon basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...
draining the valley. The city of Latacunga was again leveled completely due to the mudslide deposits.
The eruption on 19 June 1742 was witnessed by the scientists Pierre Bouguer and Charles-Marie de La Condamine, members of the French Geodesic Mission, as they descended from nearby Guagua Pichincha.[
There was a major eruption from 1903 to 1904, and minor activity persisted until at least 1940 and possibly 1942.][ (Note that direct observations of minor eruptions can be difficult because of bad weather, hence the uncertainty about the 1942 "eruption.") The same source also reported increased thermal/seismic, non-eruptive activity in 1975 and 2002. In the increased activity of 2002, fumarolic activity and sulfuric emissions increased and ice around the inside and on the southeastern side of the cone started to melt. However, no actual eruption was observed.][
In 2015, two large phreatic (steam) eruptions on the morning of August 14 marked a new phase of volcanic activity.][ The volcano "remains in a very abnormal situation. In August, 2,100 earthquakes were recorded and emission rates of sulfur dioxide reach approximately . The government estimates some 300,000 people are at risk from the volcano in the provinces of Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Napo and Pichincha.
]
Climbing
The first non-Spanish European who tried to climb the mountain was Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...
in 1802; however, he only reached a height of about . In 1858 Moritz Wagner investigated the mountain, but he could not reach the summit either.
On November 28, 1872, German geologist Wilhelm Reiss and his Colombian partner, Angel Escobar, finally reached the summit of Cotopaxi.[
In 1873 it was summitted by German Geologist Moritz Alphons Stübel and four Ecuadorians, Rafael Jantui, Melchor Páez, Vicente Ramón and Eusebio Rodriguez.][
In 1880 British mountaineer Edward Whymper and the Italian guides Jean-Antoine Carrel and Louis Carrel made the third recorded ascent of Cotopaxi and spent a night on the summit.
Painters and Hans Meyer reached the summit in 1903, and many of Reschreiter's paintings feature a view of Cotopaxi.
In the late 20th century, summiting Cotopaxi became a major tourist draw. The José F. Ribas Refuge (''Refugio José Félix Ribas'') was built in 1971 at an elevation of and enlarged in 2005.
A tragedy occurred on Easter Sunday 1996 when an avalanche partially buried the Refuge and dozens of tourists. The glacier above the Refuge was probably weakened by an earthquake that had shaken the entire Province of Cotopaxi for several days prior to the avalanche. In the warm midday sun a huge portion of the ice wall broke loose. Being Easter, there were many day visitors on the mountain who were buried in the ice and snow. Those trapped in the Refuge broke windows on the downhill side to climb to safety, but 13 people died on the slope above. The Refuge itself is located in a valley and consequently vulnerable to future avalanches.]
Recent activity
Recreation
Climbing Cotopaxi to the summit is quite popular, with up to 100 climbers attempting it on weekends. When the summit is quiet, mountain guide companies offer regular guided climbs of the mountain. Climbers grade the conventional route alpine PD (Peu Difficile) or WS (Wenig Schwierig) — or PD/WS+ (indicating "Mildly Difficult PLUS"). Use of crampons and ice axes is mandatory as snow and ice slopes of up to 50 degrees (1 in 2) are encountered, and climbers should be on belay and use aluminum
Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
ladders to cross one or two of the crevasses. A 4WD track goes up from the national park entrance to a carpark at altitude on north side, just below the José F. Ribas Refuge. This stone mountain hut — owned and operated by Grupo Ascensionismo del Colegio San Gabriel — is situated higher at (a 40-80 minute uphill hike). Here climbers can spend the night and begin their summit bid in the early morning without any intermediate camps. (Typically no more than about half of those attempting to summit Cotopaxi make it to the top after a daunting — though non-technical — six-hour scramble.) Summiting normally starts around 12:30 am, to reach the summit at latest 7:30 am and then return to the hut before the snow melts and glacier crevasses move/evolve. As of July 28, 2014, the Ribas Refuge is under construction. Tour operators shuttle their clients up to the top of the 4WD track once in the afternoon for a glacier skills class, and then again to start the climb around midnight, spending the intervening hours eating dinner and resting at a hostel lower down by the lakes. Adventure tourism operators in Quito also offer mountain biking tours from the Refuge downhill along the dirt track.
Eruptions
In April 2015, the volcano began to show signs of unrest, and came back to life. There was a large increase in earthquakes (including harmonic tremors) and SO2 emissions. IGEPN reported slight deformation of the edifice, suggesting an intrusion of magma under the volcano. As of 25 July, the unrest continued, and a significant eruption of phreatic ash and steam occurred on August 14 and 15, 2015.[ COTOPAXI]
Geophysics Institute is constantly monitoring Cotopaxi National Polytechnic School, accessed 6 January 2022[ Ash was deposited heavily in areas close to the volcano, including damaging farmlands on the flanks of neighbouring volcanoes such as El Corazon, and thinly as far as Quito, affecting southern and central areas of the city.
A new eruption began on 21 October 2022 and is ongoing as of June 2023.]
Future Cotopaxi eruptions pose a high risk to the local population, their settlements and fields. The main danger of a significant eruption of Cotopaxi would be the flash-melting of its summit glacier, resulting in devastating lahars which would travel down the flanks of the volcano, guided by river valleys whose origins lie at the volcano. Danger from normal, explosive eruptive activity is limited to within Cotopaxi National Park. However, the great distances that lahars of the significant size that Cotopaxi's glacier produces could travel greatly increase the hazard areas to include all river valleys leading from the volcano. If there were to be a very large explosion, it would destroy many northerly settlements within the valley in the suburban area of Quito
Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...
(pop. more than 2,000,000). Another city which would be in great danger is the regional capital Latacunga, which is located in the south valley, and has been destroyed at least twice (in 1768, 1877) by lahars caused by volcanic activity.
In art
* Cotopaxi is depicted in the traditional paintings of the indigenous people of Tigua, as the volcano holds significant cultural value.
* Cotopaxi was the subject of important works by painter Frederic Edwin Church
Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for paintin ...
in 1855 and 1862.
* In '' The Star'' (1897), a short story by H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
, Cotopaxi erupts with a tumult of lava that reaches the coastline in a day.
* In the poem '' Romance'' ("Chimborazo
Chimborazo () is a stratovolcano situated in Ecuador in the Cordillera Occidental (Ecuador), Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known Types of volcanic eruptions, eruption is believed to have occurred around AD 550. Although not ...
, Cotopaxi.... Popocatapetl") by Walter J. Turner (1916), Cotopaxi is one of the romantic locations that has stolen the poet's heart.''Romance''
at poetry.archive.com. Retrieved 16 June 2022
* In '' Shadrach in the Furnace'' (1976), a science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is a prolific American science fiction author and editor. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo Award, Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a SFWA Grand ...
, an eruption by Cotopaxi becomes known as "the night of Cotopaxi". It starts a series of disasters and uprisings that establish in the early 21st century a world dictatorship by the Mongolian Genghis Mao.
* In the American film '' Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977), the SS ''Cotopaxi'', a ship named Cotopaxi that disappeared in 1925, appears in the Gobi Desert.
* American rock band The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 2001. The band's only constant members are Omar Rodríguez-López (guitar, producer, direction) and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (vocals, lyrics), whose partnership forms the core of the ban ...
have a 2009 song named after the mountain.
See also
* List of volcanoes in Ecuador
* List of volcanic eruptions by death toll
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Stratovolcanoes of Ecuador
Active volcanoes
Andean Volcanic Belt
Subduction volcanoes
Glaciers of Ecuador
18th-century volcanic events
19th-century volcanic events
20th-century volcanic events
Holocene stratovolcanoes
Quaternary South America
Five-thousanders of the Andes
Climbing areas of Ecuador
Sacred mountains of South America