Pictures: Ecuador’s Tungurahua Volcano Erupts

Tungurahua Never Sleeps

Photograph by Jose Jacome, European Pressphoto Agency

A local resident stands in front of Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano on August 21, 2012.

(More Tungurahua Pictures: “‘Scary’ Volcano Erupts in Ecuador.”)

Ecuadorean authorities are encouraging residents living near the volcano to evacuate due to the volcano's increased activity, according to local media.

Mercedes Taipe, a spokesperson for Ecuador's Geophysics Institute, told the Associated Press that half a dozen villages have been showered in ash so far.

(Video: Volcanoes 101.)

Published August 23, 2012

Ash Cow

Photograph by Carlos Campana, Reuters

Ash from Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano covers a cow on August 19, 2012.

Prior to 1999, the volcano's last major eruption occurred from 1916 to 1918, with minor activity continuing until 1925, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.

(Related: “Iceland Volcano Pictures: Lightning Adds Flash to Ash.”)

Published August 23, 2012

Firestorm

Photograph by Gary Granja, Reuters

Lava, ash, and superheated rock were flung into the air during an eruption of Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano this week.

Tungurahua "certainly ranks as one of the volcanoes that keeps people up at night," Smithsonian Institution volcanologist Richard Wunderman told National Geographic News last year.

"It's scary," he said.

(See more volcano photos.)

Published August 23, 2012

Ash Analysis

Photograph by Gary Granja, Reuters

Carlos Sanchez analyzes samples of volcanic ash from Tungurahua in Baños, Ecuador, on August 21, 2012.

Sanchez, 70, calls himself the “Volcano Watcher" because he helps volcanologists by observing Tungurahua from a tree house that is located less than a mile from the volcano's crater.

Published August 23, 2012

History Repeats Itself?

Photograph by Carlos Campana, Reuters

Dense clouds of volcanic gas and ash billow from the mouth of Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano this week, during a period of heightened activity that caused authorities to raise the security alert from "moderate" to "high."

Eruptions in 2006 killed at least four people, left two missing, and forced the evacuation of thousands of people, according to the Associated Press.

(See a photo of the 2006 eruption.)

Published August 23, 2012

Next Gallery: "Throat of Fire" Erupts

Photograph by Dolores Ochoa, AP

Published August 23, 2012