Qualla: Tungurahua https://qualla.com/tungurahua en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/8/p/tungurahua-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Tungurahua https://qualla.com/tungurahua Tungurahua: Introduction https://qualla.com/tungurahua/ Photo credit Andres.heredia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mama Tungurahua, the Kichwa called her, and the name carries its own warning. The volcano's name breaks down from the Quichua tunguri, throat, and rahua, fire: the Throat of Fire. At 5,023 meters in the Cordillera Oriental of the Ecuadorian Andes, 140 kilometers south of Quito, she rises above the thermal springs town of Banos de Agua Santa, whose name translates roughly to Baths of Holy Water. Nobody who watched her erupt on August 16, 2006 would have disputed the fire half of the nickname. The ash plume climbed 10 kilometers into the sky. Pyroclastic flows poured down the slopes. Five people died. The hamlet of Chacauco was buried. Banos, just 8 kilometers to the north, watched as ash and tephra spread southwest across an area of 740 square kilometers.

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Image: Andres.heredia | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/8/p/tungurahua-wp/6r8p-tungurahua-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tungurahua: Three Mountains in One Place https://qualla.com/tungurahua/ Photo credit Marturius, CC BY-SA 3.0. What stands today is the third volcanic edifice on this site. Tungurahua I collapsed at the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 30,000 years ago. Its successor, Tungurahua II, built a caldera which then collapsed roughly 3,000 years ago, give or take 90 years. The current cone, T...

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Image: Marturius | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/8/p/tungurahua-wp/6r8p-tungurahua-three-mountains-in-one-place.mp3 0:06 2 full Tungurahua: A Century of Named Eruptions https://qualla.com/tungurahua/ Photo credit The uploader, CC BY-SA 3.0. Over the last 1,300 years, Tungurahua has entered an active phase every 80 to 100 years. The major ones in historical memory are 1773, 1886, and 1916-1918. Each event produced strong explosions, pyroclastic flows, and sometimes lava flows from the summit crater. The 1886 eruption...

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Image: The uploader | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/8/p/tungurahua-wp/6r8p-tungurahua-a-century-of-named-eruptions.mp3 0:06 3 full Tungurahua: The Phase That Would Not End https://qualla.com/tungurahua/ Photo credit Cedancp, CC BY-SA 3.0. On August 19, 1999, after a long quiescent period, Tungurahua began erupting again, and she did not really stop until 2017. Eighteen years of sustained activity, with episodes ranging from constant low-level emissions to catastrophic eruptions. The first serious event came in Oct...

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Image: Cedancp | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/8/p/tungurahua-wp/6r8p-tungurahua-the-phase-that-would-not-end.mp3 0:06 4 full Tungurahua: Banos and the Faith in Geography https://qualla.com/tungurahua/ Photo credit Hjvannes, CC BY-SA 3.0. Banos de Agua Santa sits at 1,800 meters, just 8 kilometers north of Tungurahua's peak. It is a spa town built on thermal springs that flow from the volcano's plumbing. People who live in Banos have spent eighteen years evacuating, returning, watching the plume, rebuilding, and e...

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Image: Hjvannes | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/8/p/tungurahua-wp/6r8p-tungurahua-banos-and-the-faith-in-geography.mp3 0:06 5 full Tungurahua: Humboldt's Failure and the Germans Who Succeeded https://qualla.com/tungurahua/ Photo credit Public domain. In June 1802, the Prussian explorer Alexander von Humboldt tried to reach Tungurahua's summit and failed. He was in the middle of his great South American expedition, the one that would redefine scientific geography, but the mountain defeated him. The first successful ascent came...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/r/8/p/tungurahua-wp/6r8p-tungurahua-humboldts-failure-and-the-germans-who-succeeded.mp3 0:06 6 full