Abstract ID: 3.10135 | Accepted as Poster | Poster | TBA | TBA

The glaciers located on Cotopaxi an active volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes, have lost a total ice area of 55% in the last 47 years. This long term trend is well correlated to observed climate change in the region. However, the area losses have been enhanced by the activity during 2015-2016 and more recently, by the last volcanic pulse 2022-2023. The main effect of this volcanic activity is glacier surface albedo change due to ash deposition. During the last eruption of Cotopaxi between august 2015 –January 2016, near 50% of the total glacier area was covered by ashes.. Apart from the ash deposition effects, several new hot spots have been detected near the top of Cotopaxi which are also affecting ice melt. The ice cover of Cotopaxi volcano has been frequently monitored using aerial photos and Pléiades images, including seismic, thermal photos, gas emissions . New insights of this monitoring program related with the evolution of glaciers will be presented in this work.