A Line of Ash from Sangay

Typography

November brought a new round of explosions, volcanic tremors, and gas and steam emissions to Ecuador’s most active volcano.

November brought a new round of explosions, volcanic tremors, and gas and steam emissions to Ecuador’s most active volcano. In the early part of the month, the steep-sided, glacier-covered Sangay volcano also coughed up ash.

On a day when the volcanic plume was particularly straight due to southeasterly winds, the Landsat 8 satellite captured this image despite some afternoon cloud cover. The natural-color image was acquired by the satellite’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) on November 5, 2022. The second image is a closer view of the eruption column.

According to the Ecuadoran Geophysical Institute of the National Polytechnic School (IG-EPN), satellites and webcams observed an ash-and-gas plume daily between November 1-8. Plumes generally rose to a height of 1.8 kilometers (1.2 miles) during that period, though they also reported one plume being lofted as high as 8.3 kilometers on November 4, 2022.

Read More: NASA Earth Observatory

An ongoing eruption blankets cities and farmland near the volcano with layers of ash. (Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory)