Colombia prepares for imminent eruption of killer volcano

Nevado del Ruiz now on RED alert

When the Nevado del Ruiz erupted in 1985, it wiped out the town of Armero and killed 25,000 people.

Colombia’s Interior Ministry has ordered the fire departments of 19 municipalities in the central Caldas and Tolima departments to be on high alert after the Colombian Geological Survey warned that it is “probable” that the Nevado del Ruiz volcano will erupt in the coming days or weeks.

The national director of the fire-fighting system called for a focus on high risk areas in or near the paths of rivers that originate in the Ruiz, whose levels may be elevated by pyroclastic fragments and melting ice.

Source: Ice Age Now

So, not only do we have Popo threatening to 'Pop' off but this one as well. To be fair this has been in the offing for quite some time as has Popocatepetl so it is not out of the ordinary.

Armero was destroyed by lahars in the 1985 eruption.

See Smithsonian for details of the volcano in addition to the Wiki link above.

Generally the eruptions from this volcano are between VEI 1 and VEI 3

You may also find this article about the volcano of interest

NEVADO DEL RUIZ (1985)

I do have to say that I am soaking all of this crazy stuff in like a sponge. Do you think there is a "trigger" for these events in play? What are the possibilities for N. America to be affected by any of these events?

Happy Birthday by the way.

reply to post by Doodle19815


Thanks. This one has been on the cards for some time as far as I can tell so I don't think there is any particular trigger although some may say the past conjunction around the 16th.

I think it is just doing its volcano thing.

There are often some sizeable earthquakes in the area but nothing recently so we can't blame that, unless of course Mexico unsettled it. (Unlikely I think)

Hey Puterman, thanks for starting this thread, and Happy Birthday!

I've been looking for some sort of real-time seismic monitoring for this volcano all morning. The best I have found so far is this page from Ingeominas that shows a snapshot of the past 30 minutes of their entire network.
If you scroll down the page, the "GUY" station is closest to Nevado del Ruiz (I think). It looks to have picked up in activity in the past 15 minutes.


Just wanted to add this link to the most recent Colombian earthquakes seisan.ingeominas.gov.co...

I would just like to like you back to one of the most poignant events connected with the 1985 eruption was the sad case of Omayra Sánchez

Domo1 covered it here

Just imagine how much coverage that would have got in this Internet age.

reply to post by Olivine


Thanks, and thanks for the link to the seismos - I have been trying to find that since I posted. I knew I had seen it somewhere but appear to have lost it. Must be old age or something.

reply to post by Doodle19815


Planet alignment... Read the 2 nd paragraph down

www.themistsofavalon.net...

reply to post by tracehd1


Are you talking about the Earth cracking up?
I don't really follow that train of thinking, it seems to make my head hurt when I am reading it. I am still very new to earthquake and volcano watching so I am easily excited about the smallest things. I try to avoid the ones that say the world will be ending, and this is out of the ordinary or else I will be chicken little running rampant on ATS.

I did however enjoy reading the planet alignment section. Thank you for that.

reply to post by tracehd1

How about perfectly normal volcanic activity, or is that to normal.

Above: The scientist didn't say that, the internet did

reply to post by PuterMan


Has there been any activity by other volcanos in the Central American region? Columbia and Mexico aren't that far apart. I'm just wondering if there is any possibility of a build-up of pressure in the region as a whole.

reply to post by Doodle19815



Well, no I wasn't talking about the earth cracking up.....

Butt.....

Since you mentioned it.....lol

EQ's over 5-6 have shot up...in area's where they don't normally go off as many times as they are....weird noises and booms....

Something's going on...lol

However...I was speaking of the alignments for sure...lol (w)

To Maineye...( bug pic) so the planets aren't aligning? It's just the Internet saying that?
What to do with all the proof that these planets are aligning...natural space o dear gee thanks, I wouldn't have figured it out...hahaha

reply to post by isyeye


Basically yes. Villarica and a few others - some of which are always doing their think. Your best bet is to take a look at this site which maps and reports on the Smithsonian activity reports much better than I can.

reply to post by tracehd1

EQ's over 5-6 have shot up

Care to give a source for that?

It is certainly not the picture I see.

To Maineye...( bug pic) so the planets aren't aligning? It's just the Internet saying that? What to do with all the proof that these planets are aligning...natural space o dear gee thanks, I wouldn't have figured it out...hahaha

The internet saying thing, was to the above poster of my earlier post, about the "scientist saying the earth is cracking up", he didn't say that at all.

The planet alignment, well, i don't listen to stuff like that, so i can't comment, but i do watch the planets daily activity and see nothing out of the normal.

reply to post by PuterMan


Surely......

www.december212012.info...

And this is just one of the many articles I have read from different sources and science....

Originally posted by tracehd1
reply to post by PuterMan

 

Surely......

www.december212012.info...

And this is just one of the many articles I have read from different sources and science....

There have been some major earthquakes in the recent years(not unusual), which obviusly have many aftershocks.
Those aftershocks counts in the overall picture of earthquakes worldwide, but are localised to the major eartquakes and therefore it looks like an increase, but if you look at it worldwide there has not been anything out of the ordinary.

reply to post by tracehd1


Thanks for the link. Unfortunately the writer of the article makes the basic error (on purpose?) of cherry picking a nice set of data that fits his theory. You cannot pick from the 'significant' list. That is statistical nonsense.

If you look at the energy and counts since 1960 you find that by comparison the energy is lower and the count of quakes is not increasing particularly.



When I have eaten I will find the 2011 version of that but it does not make a great deal of difference. I will also dig out the 1930 to 2011 one.

If you want to see more information on this you could visit my Earthquake Reports site and take a look at the analysis for 2011. The report for 2010 is there as well.

We are at a peak and probably over that peak now. These cycles come in about 55 year batches and seem to be linked to the Sun and Grand Conjunctions. It should get quieter for the next 20 to 30 years before it builds up to a peak again in around 50/60 years time.


reply to post by Mianeye


Very true. Did you realise that the one single 9.1 Japan quake put out as much energy as the whole of 2007,2008,2009,2010 and 2011 (excluding the 9.1) mag 6+ quakes and without the 1 quake 2011 would have been one of the lowest years for energy release?


This chart basically says it all. 1900 to 2011 showing the 1960 was tops and this is a much smaller blip at present.

So here is the Nasa Global Sulfur Dioxide Monitoring page that covers the Colombia area. Check out the intense reading for yesterday (click on the pic of April 20).
The Lat Lon of Nevado del Ruiz is 4.89527 -75.3225

reply to post by Olivine


You dig out some really good stuff.

Thanks and *

reply to post by PuterMan

Did you realise that the one single 9.1 Japan quake put out as much energy as the whole of 2007,2008,2009,2010 and 2011 (excluding the 9.1) mag 6+ quakes and without the 1 quake 2011 would have been one of the lowest years for energy release?

No, i actually didn't know thatThat's pretty crazy, i am still "very young" in earthquake watching, and lack a lot of knowledge when it comes to background data.

Love your site by the way, first time looking, but not last