Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Nevado Del Ruiz
- The eruption
- 3:06pm - Pumice fragments and ash thrown
from the sides of the vent
- 7:00pm - The Red Cross order an evacuation
but shortly after the evacuation called, ash
stopped falling and the evacuation was called
off
- 9:08pm - Eruption began as lava started to erupt from the summit
crater. Explosion accompanied by heavy rainfall. Approximately 20
million cubic metres of hot ash and rocks were thrown into the air
across snow-covered glacier. Materials were transported across
the snow by pyroclastic flows and fast-moving, hot, turbulent clouds
of gas and ash. Hot flows caused rapid melting of the snow and ice,
creating large volumes of water. Water pick up debris and formed hot
lahars as much as 40m thick and travelling 50km/h
- 11:28pm - Lahars reached Armero and in
a few minutes the town was swept away
or buried, killing 1927 people
- Nevado Del Ruiz
- Strato-volcano in the Andes
- Highest Columbian
volcano with history
of violent activity
- Produced by subduction of oceanic Nazca Plate
beneath South American Plate
- Known as the 'sleeping lion'.
Dormant for nearly 150 years
until 1985
- Primary effects on the people and landscape
- Hot clouds of ash and gas (nuées ardentes)
- Magma thrown into the air from the vent
- Avalanches of hot ash, pumice and rock fragments (pyroclastic flows)
- Secondary effects on the people and landscape
- Mud up to 40m deep was deposited in the
valleys in the path of the lahars
- 5,000 homes destroyed
- 23,000 killed
- 5,000 injured
- Temperature of the lahars served as fertile breeding
ground fo fungi and bacteria. Survivors with minor cuts
were killed by infections
- Roads blocked making it hard for rescue workers to
rescue survivors from deep mud
- Cost Colombia $7.7 billion. 20% of country's
GDP at the time