Nevado del Ruiz Erupts and Lahars Devastate Armero
Nevado del Ruiz erupted in Colombia on November 13, 1985.
Published · Updated · 1 min read
The Event
Nevado del Ruiz erupted in Colombia on November 13, 1985. Volcanic activity melted snow and ice, generating destructive lahars that rushed down river valleys.
The Wider Story
Armero was devastated even though it lay far from the volcano's summit. The disaster showed that the greatest danger need not be lava flowing directly from a crater.
Putting the Event in Perspective
Warnings, communication and evacuation became central questions afterward.
Reading the Historical Record
A reconstruction should explain the volcanic mudflow hazard without recreating recognizable victims' suffering or confusing lahars with an ordinary flood.
About the Historical Recreation
The accompanying visual is an illustrative reconstruction: a distant Colombian snow-covered volcano dissolving to an unpopulated river valley with muddy deposits. It is not authentic archival footage, an eyewitness record or additional evidence for the event.
Sources
- Perturbation and melting of snow and ice by the 13 November 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz, Colombia, and consequent mobilization, flow and deposition of lahars | U.S. Geological Survey — U.S. Geological Survey
- Preventing volcanic catastrophe; the U.S. International Volcano Disaster Assistance Program — U.S. Geological Survey
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