ReliefWeb

A. Situation analysis 

Description of the emergency

Since 20 October 2014, the Chiles and Cerro Negro volcanoes have increased volcanic activity causing several earthquakes and tremors. These volcanoes are located on the border between Ecuador and Colombia. The strongest earthquake felt until now occurred on that same date at 2:33 pm local time, registering 5.8 on the Richter scale with a depth of less than 10 kilometres. The Chiles and Cerro Negro volcanoes monitoring network continues to register quakes at the Colombian-Ecuadorian border with an epicenter area southwest of the Chiles volcano.

An average of 6,200 earthquakes are being registered per day. Most of these earthquakes are of the Volcano-Tectonic (VT) type, i.e. associated with rock fractures. To a lesser extent, earthquakes have occurred with typical characteristics of volcanic earthquakes of the long-period/very-long-period type.
According to Geophysical Institutes of Ecuador (IGEPN) and Colombia reports, the Cantons of Tulcán and Espejo are in the areas under the greatest influence from the eruptive effects of the Chiles and Cerro Negro volcanoes. Under these conditions, on 22 October 22 COE meeting the Risk Management Secretariat declared an Orange Alert for areas considered high-risk in the province and kept Technical Task Forces permanently active.

Preliminary data from the Ecuador Risk Management Secretariat reported damage to access roads to the Maldonado Parish in the Canton of Tulcán. The Ministry of Transportation and Public Works is rehabilitating the alternate road connecting the Parish of Chical and the Province of Imbabura, which will serve as an evacuation route should another natural event occur.

The areas affected by the volcano-caused earthquakes are the Cantons of Tulcán and Espejo, putting approximately 15,000 people at risk.

A more in-depth analysis is provided in the “Needs Analysis, Beneficiary Selection and Risk Assessment” section.