Cotopaxi, << `koh` toh PAK see, >> in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, is one of the world’s highest active volcanoes. It is 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Quito, Ecuador. Its nearly perfect cone, with slopes of about 30 degrees, rises 19,347 feet (5,897 meters) above sea level, and is covered with glaciers and snow fields. Its crater is about 2,600 feet (792 meters) across. The volcano is in Cotopaxi National Park. Lava and hot ash rapidly melt snow on the flanks of the cone, sending big flows of mud down the mountainside. In 1877, a violent eruption caused ashfalls and mudflows that killed about 1,000 people.
