VOLCANO ERUPTS!

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>Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 05:36:56
>To: jpeters@pty.com
>From: Rosalind Baitel
>Subject: Volcano erupts on Galapagos Islands >
>>Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 06:31:30 -0400
>>From: Greg Chamberlain
>>Subject: Volcano erupts on Galapagos Islands
>>To: Electronic Evergreen
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>>Via MNI-INFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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>> QUITO, Ecuador, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Officials said on Wednesday that a volcano has begun to erupt on the Galapagos Islands, where 19th century naturalist Charles Darwin got the inspiration for his theory of evolution. The Cerro Azul volcano on the island of Santa Isabela became active on Tuesday night following a 20-year lull in volcano activity in the Galapagos, which lie in the Pacific Ocean off of Ecuador's coast. The islands are part of Ecuador. "It's hard to appreciate from this distance. One can only see the flame. It could be spewing lava, but we can't tell in which direction," Gustavo Jaramillo, an official with the Galapagos National Park, told Reuters. Darwin visited the islands in the early 19th century aboard the HMS Beagle and is said to have drawn on the islands' fauna and flora as inspiration for his revolutionary "Origin of Species." The islands, which were declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1979, are popular among tourists for their abundance of unique animals like the giant tortoise for which they were named. Jaramillo said vegetation and animals on Santa Isabela, the largest of the Galapagos islands, could be at risk if the lava flows down the eastern or northern face of Cerro Azul. "It looks like it has two openings. You can see them at night about a kilometre apart," he said. The Cerro Azul volcano is 34 miles (55 km) away from the small town of Villamil. "We're afraid of the lava reaching us. It's a large mountain," said Mercy Gil, an employee with the Santa Isabela municipality. Quito's Centre for Geophysics said it could not confirm that the volcano erupted. It said it only received information on the region once a week.
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>>. . . The Electronic Evergreen, courtesy of GEM Radio Network
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View Cerro Azul Volcano

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