Cotopaxi Summary

 

The Instituto Geofísico volcano observatory posted detailed information about the current activity at the volcano involving seismic, ground deformation, emission, ashfall, temperature and gas measurements.

Seismic activity
The seismic activity at the volcano continues at gradually elevated levels since October last year as a number of volcano-tectonic/high-frequency, long-period/low-frequency and hybrid earthquakes increases. Released energy manifests itself in the form of volcanic tremor associated with near-constant emissions of ash, gases and water vapor. Despite the increasing activity, the volcano's behavior is still at low levels in comparison to the 2015 eruptive activity. Moreover, seismic events, located within the edifice, are getting gently stronger in magnitude scale, which confirms that the activity is slowly but surely intensifying.

Ground deformation
Magma at depth is still able to pressurize and fracture surrounding rocks at depth, which allows it to rise further toward the surface. This likely reflect continuing deformation of the ground causing its local displacements detectable by very sensitive tiltmeter, GPS instruments and InSAR (interferometric synthetic-aperture radar) technique for mapping ground deformation using radar images of the Earth's surface acquired from the orbiting ESA Sentinel-1 satellites during March 2022 and February 2023. Collected data have revealed a slight inflation-deflation pattern on the western flank of the volcano. The vertical deformation has amounted by between 8-15 mm caused by magma intrusion into the volcano's conduit.