Chimborazo

Chimborazo is situated in the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes of central Ecuador, 150 km (93 mi) south-southwest of the center Quito. It's neighbored by 5,018 m high Carihuairazo. Chimborazo's royal summit rises 2,500 m above the surrounding highlands (~3,500 to 4,000 m) with a ~20 km broad base. Under clear conditions the peak of Chimborazo can be seen from the coastal city Guayaquil. The nearest cities are Riobamba (~30km to the southeast), Ambato (~30km to the northeast) and Guaranda (~25km to the southwest).Chimborazo is bordered by the "Reserva de Produccion Faunistica Chimborazo" which forms a confined ecosystem to conserve the habitat for the andes native camelids Vicuña, Llama and Alpaca.

Chimborazo is a dominantly andesitic-dacitic stratovolcano. About 35,000 years ago a collapse of Chimborazo shaped a debris avalanche, the deposits of which underlie Riobamba. Chimborazo then erupted numerous times during the Holocene, the last time around 640 CE ± 500 years.