Cayambe

The Cayambe is a Volcan located at the east of the the Ecuadorian Andes , in the province of Pichincha to 70 km with the nordest of Quito.

Its exact coordinates are 0.029° Northern - Western 77.985° and its altitude are of 5.785 meters. It is the higher third Montagne of Ecuador. The first to have climbed it was the English Edward Whymper, accompanied by the brothers Jean-Antoine and Louis Carrel in 1880, and this top remains very snuffed by the mountaineers nowadays. Near to his top, for 4.600 Mr. highest accounts the point on the line of the equator. Cayambe, which is covered with snow all the year, is an old volcano from approximately 1 million years. He did not know an eruption at historical times. He belongs to the ecological reserve of Cayambe-Coke .

Cayambe is also the name of an agricultural city of approximately 120.000 inhabitants, located beside the volcano. The city is populated mainly Mestizo S, but the villages neighborhood are composed of descendants of the pre INCA S Kayambi , of the natives who practice an agriculture of subsistence, the Milk industry and the timber supply. Kayambi resisted the INCA expansion, but were conquered definitively by Huayna Capac after a bloody war which lasted 20 years, little time before the arrival of the Spanish first Conquistador S in the area, at the 16th century. The indigenous language Quichua, or Kichwa, a dialect derived from the Quechua, is spoken still today there in some hamlets, whereas other Quichuas passed to Spanish.

The area shelters many plantations of Fleur S intended for export; however, nonprotected management and the toxic repercussions of these cultures caused serious damage with the environment and created health issues among the employees of the plantations.

Volcanicity

The studies carried out as from 1995 by a joint team of Ecuadorian and French researchers showed that during the 4000 last years Cayambe knew periods of intense approximately 700 years eruptive activity alternating with periods of rest from 500 to 600 years. The resumption of the eruptions must thus be considered.

References

When Cayambe awakes… The Newspaper of CNRS 196, May 2006.

See too

Towns of Ecuador

External bonds

Excursion in Cayambe, May 2007

Voyage in Cayambe, November 2004

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