Volcanologia

So this last weekend I had another salido de campo for my volcanology class, but the fun started for that class on Thursday when we made anaolg volcanoes. This was sort of like making those paper mache baking soda and vineagar volcanoes but we used dynamite and gunpowder. It was a fun class of blowing things up.


So on Saturday we left for our field trip to Cotopaxi, Baños, and Tungurahua. Cotopaxi and Tungurahua are both active volcanoes. Cotopaxi is actually about 30 years overdo for an eruption. It also has a glacier on top which is on of only a few glaciers that exist of the equator.


On Saturday we left at 7am and headed to Cotopaxi. We stopped a couple of places to look at lahar (volcanic mud slide) and volcanic ejecta deposits. I collected a few rock samples for myslef because I am nerd. Once we got to Cotopaxi we went to this lava flow deposit. To get it to it we ran down this very steep dirt slope. We walked up to the edge and Theo (our professor) said, "Ok so now we all have to run down there." About half the class thought he was joking, but of course he was not. It was lots of fun. As we were looking at the lava flow deposit (of whch I also took a sample) it started hailing. I felt like I was back in Minnesota. We then had to climb back up the hill, which was less fun than running down. We then went back to the bus. From there we all had the option to walk up part of Cotopaxi. I chose to do this. Let me tell you, it was hard. It was super high, and because of the altitude you walked 20ft and were gasping for breath. It continued to hail a little and also started thundering which was comforting. I made it up a little ways past the refugio. The parking lot where we started was at about 4600m and the refugio was at 4800m. It was really cool because you could see the glacier. I did not quite make it to the glacier. It got really cloudy so I would not have been able to see the glacier really well anyways, plus it was getting late, so I decided to go back to the refugio. I got some hot chocolate and then refreshed, I walked back down to the bus. It took about 45 minutes to walk up to the refugio and only about 10 minutes to walk back down. It was a great feeling of accomplishment and a lot of fun. As soon as everyone was back at the bus, we left for Baños.



As soon as we got to Baños we checked into the hotel and then went to get dinner as we were all starving. After dinner I just spent a chill evening hanging out woth a couple people. We wandered around a little bit, got ice cream, shared a bottle of wine, explored a little park across the street from our hotel, and hung out on our balcony. We had to get up super early the next morning so we all went to bed by 11pm.



On Sunday we left at 5:30am to go to this water fall and look at some lovely rock outcrops. We also looked at the different types of sediment that a few of the rivers in the area were carrying to compare the sources. We then drove by a hydroelectric plant. We also got to see Tungurahua. We didn't get very close, but it was clear so we could see it. It was erupting gas and steam. We then returned to our hotel for breakfast and hit the road by 9am. We drove a ways and looked at some pyroclastic flow deposits from when Tungurahua erupted in 2006. We heard a talk about coexisiting with volcanoes and the Ecuadorian government's many shortcomings in that department. We also looked at more lahar deposits and I got a piece of 3 year old basaltic andesite, which I think is pretty cool. We then returned to Quito. It was an awesome weekend.