Volcanic Eruption in Ecuador

Today was action packed. After riding on the roof of the train through El Nariz del Diablo this morning from Alausi, we continued back north by train, over 4 hours, to the town of Riobamba. While descending into Riobamba on the rails, I could see one volcanic crater on the horizon that very much resembled Mount St. Helens. However, to the left of that one on the horizon of mountains I could see another volcano that appeared to be currently undergoing a major eruption. It looked quite close, the gray ash cloud shooting miles into the sky, and pyroclastic flows descending down the mountainside. So, we got on a bus to head out and return to Quito.

We are now back in Quito and have learned that what we saw was Volcan Tungurahua having a major eruption, about 85 miles south of the capital. Several towns are being evacuated, including the touristy town of Banos, the other option of where we would have gone had we not chosen to do the El Nariz del Diablo train.

Here is some information about the eruption:
BBC - Ecuador Volcano Sparks Evacuation
BBC - News in Pictures - Ecuador Volcano
BBC - Volcanic Eruptions Score Melodies - Interesting article about how volcanologists use the low-frequency, seismic rumblings of volcanoes, transforming them into delicate musical scores, in an effort to predict when they will erupt.