Ecuador Research Paper
Ecuador is a small country on the Pacific coast of South America. It is bisected laterally by the
equator, and longitudinally by the Andes. The Andes divide the country's mainland into three
distinct regions, the coast to the west, the mountains, and the rainforest to the east. It is the Andes
that this paper is focused on, giving special attention to the mountain Cotopaxi.
The Andes run along the western side of South America, starting in Venezuela and continuing
through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, all the way to the southern tip of Chile. In
Ecuador, they are bound by the Pacific to the west, and the Amazon Basin to the east. They began to
form in the Cretaceous Period, although it was not until the about fifteen ... Show more content on
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162), and the second highest peak in Ecuador. It is locates in the Northern Volcanic Zone of the
Andes, less than a degree south of the equator. It is almost perfectly conical, rising to a height of
5,897 meters above sea level, and is covered with glaciers from about 4,500 meters up to the
summit. The glaciers cover a total area of 21 km2, as of 2004. At the summit, the crater is about 800
meters across, and extends to a depth of 334 meters (Aguilera et al, 2004, p. 162). The primary
rivers it drains water into are the Rio Cutuchi to the south, the Rio Pita to the north, and the Rio
Tamboto to the east (Aguilera et al, 2004, p. 163). It is along these rivers than many towns are
located. Along the Rio Cutuchi, the city of Latacunga is a mere 43 km away from the volcano; while
Sangolquí is located to the north, in the Valle de los Chillos, about 40 km downstream along the Rio
Pita from Cotopaxi (Aguilera et al, 2004, p. 163). The capital of Ecuador, Quito, lies only about 50
km away to the northwest (Aguilera et al, 2004, p. 162).
The glaciers that give Cotopaxi its stunning appearance are one of the factors that make Cotopaxi so
dangerous. When the volcano has an eruption, the hot material issued from the crater melts portions
of the glaciers on the summit, inevitably triggering lahars. Cotopaxi is known for having syn–
eruptive lahars. According to Aguilera et al, (2004),
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