QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano has spewed a 6-mile (10-kilometer) column of ash after a powerful, five-minute explosion that shot pyroclastic material onto its northern and northwestern flanks.
Ecuador’s geophysics institute said Friday’s blast occurred at 6:10 p.m. local time and was followed by a second, four-minute explosion and five lesser tremors.
The 16,480-foot (5,023-meter) volcano, nearly 90 miles (140 kilometers) south of Quito, revived on Feb. 1, with eruptions that affected a third of Ecuador’s provinces and temporarily closed a regional airport.
Tungurahua has been erupting sporadically since 1999. In 2006, a pyroclastic cloud killed four people and left two missing.
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