Snow-capped Cotopaxi volcano spews ash south of Ecuador’s capital

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – A 2-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) plume of ash shot out of the Cotopaxi volcano near Ecuador’s capital Friday in two pre-dawn blasts, coating highways, homes and cars with a fine gray powder.

After 40 years of being dormant, Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador is spewing ash.

The volcano is not erupting, the Institute stressed.

Friday’s minor explosions took place at 4.02 a.m. (0902 GMT) and 4.07 a.m. local time, according to the Geophysical Institute.

The observatory’s Patricio Ramon identified the explosions as small phreatic eruptions, usually triggered when molten rock, or magma, meets water and produces a violent steam release.

The British Foreign Office said: “The authorities from Cotopaxi National Park have restricted access to the volcano until further notice”.

They suggest that local climbers leave the mountain immediately, as “the possible occurrence of explosions which throw blocks or very energetic emissions of seam and volcanic gasses which can be harmful to health”.

One onlooker captured the volcano’s explosion soaring above clouds in a short video taken during a flight.

In the last major eruption in 1877, muddy debris traveled more than 100 kilometers (62 miles). The volcano is prone to flows of volcanic rock and mud and it sits next to a heavily populated area. Officials have declared a yellow alert, but said there is no impending probability of a major eruption.

This report includes material from Reuters and the Associated Press.