Geography-volcanoes 03

Mount Ruiz
Mount Ruiz also known as Nevado del Ruiz, is located in central Colombia, 130km West North West of Bogata. The Nevado del Ruiz was produced by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate beneath the continental South American Plate. It is the northernmost of some two dozen active volcanoes scattered along the Cordillera Central.

Its eruption on 13th November 1985 created history’s fourth largest volcanic disaster. The eruption although small, produced an enormous lahar which consists of mud and debris flow, which pose a threat to human life and environment. The lahar completely buried a desolated town called Armero causing an estimated 23,000 deaths.
The high death toll was the result of the lack of preparation. The government officials were responsible for this tragedy as they chose to ignore the warnings by volcanologists. The villagers were warned about the possibility of the disaster however because of past false information about it happening and the false statements from other officials who say that the volcano was not going to erupt. Thus, the villagers did not believe the warnings.


As the town of Amero was built on old mudflows, it was in the hazard zone if lahars were to avalanched down the mountain. The people of the town were told to stay inside and avoid the falling ash, not thinking the mudflows would bury them.
Several years later, the sides of the creeks along which the lahars flowed were clearly visible from commercial airplanes. In the mid 1990s, the town was still buried up to 20 feet of ash and debris. The local villagers who harvested stones for building work. They would often still discover human bones and would place it on the shrines around the area.
Survivors who fled to other towns in the area were gradually housed in new government schemes, but problems for the displaced population occurred for many years after.
The eruption cost Columbia 7.7 billion dollars.



http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/512533/Mount-Ruiz
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Nevado+del+Ruiz?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=Nevado+del+Ruiz&sa=Search#922
http://www.volcanolive.com/ruiz.html
Picture from : http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Nevado+del+Ruiz?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=Nevado+del+Ruiz&sa=Search#922