Earthquake In Ecuador In 2016 - A Horrifying Natural Disaster

A horrifying natural disaster impacted the Coastal of Manabi, Ecuador, on April 18, 2016. It was the most powerful earthquake to ever hit South America. The consequences were severely terrible which led to numerous of homes being shattered and leaving the community without a roof. The number of deceases was estimated to be extremely high along with severely injured people.The earthquake took place roughly at 6:58 pm, of the west coast of Northern Ecuador with a magnitude of 7.8 and a depth of 20.6 km. Along with the earthquake being a large thrust that is about 27 km away from Musine and Pedernales. The Capital of Ecuador, Quito was not impacted by the devastated earthquake but did feel it heavily. The earthquake affected many areas of Ecuador, as well as “six coastal provinces that are nearby such as Guayas, Manabi, Santo Domingo, Los Rios, Esmeraldas and Galapagos”.(Ralph Ellis, Faith Karimi, Azadeh Ansari and Natalie Gallon, CNN ) “It has been the deadliest earthquake to struck Ecuador since the earthquake in 1987.”(Kathryn Reid)

The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, reported the earthquake as an immediate emergency evacuation of those affected areas.President Rafael Correa ordered military forces to go out and help search for missing people. Police officers were also dispatched to local areas in need of support. Many people from different communities were left without a home due to their houses being abolished or no longer in a good condition. Unfortunately, the essential facilities were destroyed such as the water, sanitation, and healthcare centres which resulted the “damages to be $2 to $3 billion, with 90 percent of infrastructure destroyed in some areas.” (Kathryn Reid) The governments of other countries contributed their help providing shelter, sending out their own police force. Countries that helped Ecuador in there critical condition are Colombia, Chile, Spain and Mexico.2008 Chaitén Volcano ChileThe Chaitén volcano is located in a South America country, known as Chile. The Chaitén volcano is a small volcano caldera located in the southern part of Chile on the flake of Michinmahuida.The Chaitén volcano is formed by rhyolite rocks, which has not erupt frequently until 2008.

In the earlier eruptions from the Chaitén volcano, it contained rhyolitic lava that was effective 9,400 years ago. The explantation of the Chaitén volcano to erupt is as a result of the “melting of the plate in the asthenosphere but it has not been erupting regularly until 2008.”(Hobart King) The Chaitén volcano is located in an area, where it sits above the Peru-Chile subduction zone where it can be very dangerous. “ In this convergent boundary, the Nazca Plate is being subducted under the South America tectonic plate.”(Jessica Ball). These are the two main reasons why the Chaitén volcano erupted in the past and has erupted up until in 2011.In May 2008, the Chaitén volcano began to erupt for the very first time in years, as it was a surprise for everybody, the eruption began intensely, generating a lot of plumes, pyroclasts flows, with slight earthquakes in between and lahars. In the 2008 eruption, it composed “high Plinian eruption columns of ash, gas and rock. These columns were accompanied by pyroclastic flows, lahars, and abundant ash fall.”(Chaitén-Eruption- LEDC).

As a result of the 2008 Chaitén eruption, it formed a new lava dome on the north side of the old one, which consisted to be 540,000m2 containing 55million m3 of material.The after affect of the 2008 Chaitén eruption had severe consequences in the close by town of Chaitén, which is about 10 km southwest of where the eruption took place. The town was covered with ash falls all around, which led the community of 4,000 people to evacuate the town by boat into a nearby safe town. The county Argentina was also affected with the ash falls due to on how severe the eruption was, which in result led to important facilities to shut down immediately such as to schools, highways and airports. The eruption caused the town of Chaitén to be flooded by 90% due to the increase of flows of the Rio Blanco or Rio Chaitén but no deaths have been reported.