Volcanoes in Ecuador
Volcanoes of Ecuador
Ecuador holds 40 catalogued volcanoes. Below, the ones whose heat was measured from space in the last twenty-four hours, then the full list.
Radiating right now
No collection cycle has completed yet on this server. This is not a statement that nothing is radiating — it means nothing has been looked at yet.
Every catalogued volcano
- AlcedoShield, last eruption 1993 CE
- AlisoStratovolcano, last eruption 2450 BCE
- AntisanaStratovolcano, last eruption 1802 CE
- AtacazoStratovolcano, last eruption 320 BCE
- AzufralStratovolcano, last eruption 930 BCE
- Azul, CerroShield, last eruption 2008 CE
- CayambeCompound, last eruption 1786 CE
- ChacanaCaldera, last eruption 1773 CE
- ChachimbiroStratovolcano, last eruption 3740 BCE
- Chiles-Cerro NegroStratovolcano, last eruption 1936 CE
- ChimborazoStratovolcano, last eruption 550 CE
- CotopaxiStratovolcano, last eruption 2023 CE
- CuicochaCaldera, last eruption 650 CE
- CumbalStratovolcano, last eruption 1926 CE
- DarwinShield, last eruption 1813 CE
- Dona JuanaStratovolcano, last eruption 1906 CE
- EcuadorShield, last eruption 1150 CE
- FernandinaShield, last eruption 2024 CE
- Galapagos Rift at 86°WFissure vent(s), last eruption 1996 CE
- GalerasComplex, last eruption 2014 CE
- GenovesaShield, last eruption Unknown
- Guagua PichinchaStratovolcano, last eruption 2002 CE
- IlinizaStratovolcano, last eruption Unknown
- ImbaburaCompound, last eruption 5550 BCE
- LictoPyroclastic cone(s), last eruption Unknown
- MarchenaShield, last eruption 1991 CE
- MojandaStratovolcano(es), last eruption Unknown
- Negra, SierraShield, last eruption 2018 CE
- PintaShield, last eruption Unknown
- PululahuaCaldera, last eruption 290 CE
- QuilotoaCaldera, last eruption 1280 CE
- ReventadorStratovolcano, last eruption 2025 CE
- San CristobalShield, last eruption Unknown
- SangayStratovolcano, last eruption 2025 CE
- Santa CruzShield, last eruption Unknown
- SantiagoShield, last eruption 1906 CE
- SocheStratovolcano, last eruption 6650 BCE
- SumacoStratovolcano, last eruption 1895 CE
- TungurahuaStratovolcano, last eruption 2016 CE
- WolfShield, last eruption 2022 CE
Questions readers ask
- Which volcanoes are erupting right now?
- The list above is what satellites measured in the last twenty-four hours. It is not the list of erupting volcanoes: an eruption under cloud, or one too cool to detect, will be missing, and a lava field cooling after an eruption can still appear.
- How many active volcanoes are there in the world?
- The Smithsonian Institution catalogues about 1,300 volcanoes with an eruption during the Holocene, roughly the last 10,000 years. Far fewer are erupting at any given moment — typically a few dozen.
- How can a satellite tell a volcano is active?
- It measures infrared radiation. Lava, hot gas and fresh deposits emit far more than the surrounding ground, so a thermal sensor detects them from orbit — day or night, but not through thick cloud.
- Does an absent volcano mean it has stopped?
- No. It means no satellite measured heat there during the window. Cloud, the timing of the overpass, or an eruption confined below the surface all produce the same silence.
What this measurement is, and is not
- Radiative power is the infrared a sensor received at the instant it passed overhead. It is not a measure of emissions, of pollution, or of any contribution to climate change — a solar farm can top the list on reflected sunlight alone.
- A source absent from this page is not a source at rest: a polar satellite passes twice a day, clouds hide the ground, and a site that was hot between two overpasses was never seen.
- The site catalog is a snapshot, rebuilt by hand. A plant that opened after the last build is missing from it, and a plant that closed is still in it.
Where the data comes from
The detections are NASA FIRMS (LANCE / EOSDIS). The sites are not NASA's data and are not ours: they come from the Smithsonian Institution for volcanoes, the World Bank with NOAA and the Colorado School of Mines for flares, the World Resources Institute for power plants, the Spatial Finance Initiative for cement, steel and petrochemicals, Global Energy Monitor for steel, and the U.S. Geological Survey for mineral sites.