Chimborazo , Volcano of Ecuador culminating with 6  310  m of altitude and located close to Riobamba, to approximately 180 km in the south of Quito. It is the top highest of the the Ecuadorian Andes, which dominates an area of 50  000  km ², its base making 20  km of diameter.

One can consider that the Chimborazo is more the high summit of the world, or at least from which the top is furthest away from the center of the ground. Indeed, the ground has the shape of ellipsoid, whose ray is approximately 21 km more important with the equator than with the poles, and Chimborazo is close to this equator, more than the tops of the the Himalayas. For this same reason, the top of Chimborazo has also the distinction to be the point of the surface of the ground nearest to the Sun.

In 1802, the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt tried to climb this volcano, which was then regarded as more the high mountain of the world. But it had to turn back to 5875 m because of the lack of air. It is thus with Edward Whymper and to the brothers Louis and Jean-Antoine Carrel that returned in 1880 the honor to be the first Westerners to reach the top. Many people doubted this exploit and Whymper climbs once again Chimborazo the same year in company of the Ecuadorians David Beltrán and Francisco Campaña.

It inspired later the Libertador Simón Bolívar, which wrote a poem on this volcano.

Its last eruption dates of more than ten thousand years. It is considered to represent a tiny risk of eruption.

It is called Taita Chimborazo , i.e. Papa Chimborazo , the mother being Mama Tungurahua .

The glacier of Chimborazo is the source of supply out of water of the inhabitants of the cantons of Bolivar and Chimborazo. The capital of the Bolivar, Guaranda (25 000 inhabitants) is supplied by vertientes in the top Páramo (Andean arid plate with the top of 4.000 m) located at 25 km of the city. At the summer 2005 the water provision of the city underwent several crises, probably due to the rapid disappearance of the glacial cover of Chimborazo. According to French researchers, high the Andean glaciers found at an accelerated speed and much should disappear in the next decades. This is why, Quito, Lima, La Paz and other cities, whose water supply depends on glacial resources, will have to face important water shortages in a near future.

External bonds

• Chimborazo on summitpost
• Given on the volcano of Chimborazo ('' Global Volcanism Program '')

Be-X-old: Чымбараса (вулькан)