Tungurahua, Ecuador Volcano, Sends 300 Fleeing From Truck-Sized Rocks

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano hurled truck-sized pyroclastic boulders more than a mile Friday in a powerful eruption that prompted at least 300 people to flee their homes, authorities said.

Schools were closed for a third straight day as ash showered down on a dozen towns in the sparsely populated area surrounding the 16,480-foot (5,023-meter) volcano.

Thundering explosions could be heard miles from Tungurahua, which is on the Andes cordillera 84 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of Ecuador's capital, Quito.

A state Geophysics Institute scientist monitoring the volcano from a nearby observation post said by phone that incandescent boulders were landing up to 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) beneath crater level.

"The smallest blocks are that size of an automobile while the biggest reach the size of a truck, which cause impact craters up to 10 meters (33 feet) wide as they hit the flanks," the scientist, Silvana Hidalgo, told The Associated Press.

She called the eruption level "moderate to high."

Civil defense officials reported an intense shower of ash east of the volcano, including in Banos, a tourist destination three miles (five kilometers) away that is popular for its hot springs.

The volcano has been active since 1999. At least four people were killed and thousands evacuated in eruptions in July and August of 2006.

Comments

[scorpioman]

08:21 PM on 05/02/2011

NOBODY messes with MOTHER NATURE!

[blogisti]

08:39 AM on 05/02/2011

The earth's crust is certainly full of activity these days. Volcanoes and earthquakes seem to be more frequent and more powerful.

[WorkhelpWorkhelp]

12:06 AM on 05/03/2011

If you only wold have kept your 3 million year old newspapers you'd know how wrong you are.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

12:32 AM on 05/02/2011

Naw Really she told me she was a virgin!
Every body makes mistakes!
Really that many?
and the bolivian navy?

[magedfoxx]

06:43 PM on 05/01/2011

WHAT?

no virgin willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?

[PetrBuben]

07:10 PM on 05/01/2011

what you mean?? going to bed with a republican??

[Zelmo Swift]

03:20 AM on 05/02/2011

Let's not stoop to their level. We have to beat them with class and confidence, not the desperate name-calling and character attacks of the childish right-wing.

[magedfoxx]

06:09 PM on 05/01/2011

"The smallest blocks are that size of an automobile while the biggest reach the size of a truck, which cause impact craters up to 10 meters (33 feet) wide..''

WOW!

The forces of nature never cease to astound me.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

12:33 AM on 05/02/2011

God Plays for keeps when she plays "dodge Ball"

[Amryxx]

04:56 PM on 05/01/2011

A volcano is like a war; magnificent, but only if you don't have to experience it first-hand!

[Dave Harrison]

01:56 PM on 05/01/2011

What size are the trucks? Rangers or Kenworths?

[Dunkleberger Karl]

12:34 AM on 05/02/2011

Volvo!

[dwynnsplace]

10:01 AM on 05/01/2011

Wish the process of renewal that the earth goes through could effect our political system just as it does the surrounding countryside, rapidly and with some permanency.

[Red Russet]

01:51 PM on 05/01/2011

It would be to see a lot of our politicians buried in hot lava!

[B 42]

06:42 AM on 05/01/2011

I am reading The Invention of God: The Natural Origins of Mythology and Religion... It has given me a new found admiration of volcanic explosions and their significance in our understanding of religion... Anyone interested in the subject would find this insighful!

[magedfoxx]

06:24 PM on 05/01/2011

also Joseph Campbell's work offer a good explanation of man's need to invent god.
some will always have a need to find comfort in religion or mythology and therefore, a civilization's culture would require a ''religion'' that is dynamic, diverse, and flexible to survive.

even today,witnessing the awesome forces of nature are ''frightening'' and should engender a respect for nature and a desire to learn more.

man's understanding of science is a work in progress.

[B 42]

01:50 AM on 05/02/2011

I am flying through Bill Lauritzen's book, it truly is fascinating. I look forward to reading Campbell's work. Thanks for the suggestion!

[magedfoxx]

06:25 PM on 05/01/2011

faved and fanned.

[JackTheSkipper]

12:10 AM on 05/01/2011

If life on planet Earth was "created" by an intelligent higher power, we wouldn't have the volcanoes, tsunamis and diseases. The creator would've been "engineered" an utopian world for us.

[oneyippie]

12:03 PM on 05/01/2011

All indications are "creation" was a chaotic event, not something carefully created by a supreme being, but then again, who are we to know? We are insignificant specs on an insignificant planet in an insignificant region of the galaxy in an insignificant corner of the universe.

Global warming and exploding volcanos on earth are insignificant to rest of the universe. Our species-centrism blinds us to our true insignificance.

[oneyippie]

12:08 PM on 05/01/2011

And therefore, religion is the crutch many use to feel like a significant, special being, at the center of the universe. But it is an illusion.

[Red Russet]

01:55 PM on 05/01/2011

It is in the bible somewhere - at the beginning most likely, God did create a utopia, called the garden of Eden. God told them not to go near the tree with the apples hanging on it. But then Eve took the apple to Adam on advise from the snake. (devil who was hanging out in the tree). He ate it and BOOM! God threw them out of Eden for disobeying him. So now we all live in misery outside of Eden. Go look it up.

[magedfoxx]

06:39 PM on 05/01/2011

and you accept this as true?
why?

[Michael Gerety]

04:42 AM on 05/02/2011

Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Sounds like good was telling them that as soon as they started thinking they had the brains to judge based on "good and evil," they would be lost. They where banished not for disobeying but for being egotistical and thinking they were as smart as god.

Take those apples and eat them. Learn to look at the words, not what someone told you they meant. Idiots!

[ibsteve2u]

10:24 PM on 04/30/2011

Ma Nature, the original "terrorist"...

[LogicalMathMan]

08:08 PM on 04/30/2011

Now, if that volcano were to spew boulder-sized trucks, people would be running toward the volcano....just sayin....with Exxon at the head of the line.

[H P]

07:46 PM on 04/30/2011

Volcano's happen, earthquakes happen, tornado's happen..

[Dunkleberger Karl]

12:35 AM on 05/02/2011

Sheet happens! too bad they all cant happen @ a Klan rally !
 
That U-tube vdeo would get a billion hits!

[Richard in CO]

06:52 PM on 04/30/2011

Better steer clear; don't get caught like the Sightseers who ventured up to the slopes of Mount St. Helens....then...BOOM!

[Dunkleberger Karl]

12:37 AM on 05/02/2011

There were no sight seers on MT st Helens that day! just land owners and sizemologists!

[DRBOTTS]

03:11 PM on 04/30/2011

I think I heard Trump say it was Obama's fault, I might be mistaken.

[anniewheelr]

07:38 PM on 04/30/2011

No that was someone trying to blame it on Bush....since according to this Administration everything is Bush's fault....

[marinemomof3]

08:07 PM on 04/30/2011

You are entitled to your own OPINION, you are NOT entitled to your own FACTS

[buttonman]

08:10 PM on 04/30/2011

From day one to his last day in office boosch blamed everything on President Clinton. You remember the Clinton Admiistration, peacetime prosperity, booming job market & a trillion buck surplus. Yeah them bad old days.

The day boosch left office we had several trill deficit & a country in economic ruin & wars galore. Don't forget that.

This admin doesn't have to blame everything on Mr. B. because it's all out there and it's the truth.