Armero tragedy
The Armero tragedy occurred following the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985. More than 20,000 of the town’s almost 29,000 inhabitants were killed. Casualties in other towns, particularly Chinchiná, brought the overall death toll to 23,000. This was the second-deadliest volcanic disaster of the 20th century, surpassed only by the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée.
About Armero tragedy in brief
The Armero tragedy occurred following the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985. After 69 years of dormancy, the volcano’s eruption caught nearby towns unaware, even though the government had received warnings from volcanological organizations to evacuate the area. As pyroclastic flows erupted, they melted the mountain’s glaciers, sending four enormous lahars down its slopes at 50 kilometers per hour. More than 20,000 of the town’s almost 29,000 inhabitants were killed. Casualties in other towns, particularly Chinchiná, brought the overall death toll to 23,000. This was the second-deadliest volcanic disaster of the 20th century, surpassed only by the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée, and is the fourth- deadliest volcanic event recorded since 1500. Nevado Del Ruiz has erupted several times since the disaster, and continues to threaten up to 500,000 people living along the Combeima, Chinch iná, Coello-Toche, and Guali river valleys. The Colombian government established a specialized office which promotes awareness of natural threats. The U.S. Geological Survey also created the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program and the Volcano Crisis Assistance Team, which evacuated roughly 75,000people from the area around Mount Pinatubo before its 1991 eruption. In the 1595 eruption, 636 people were killed by ashfalls. During the 1845 event, 1,000 People were killed by earthquake-generated mudflows near the Magdalena River.
During three distinct eruptions at least 12 times, it has erupted at least twelve times, producing ashfalls that claimed the lives of at least 6,36 people. In 1988, three years after the eruption, Dr. Stanley Williams of Louisiana State University stated that, “No other volcano in the Western Hemisphere is being watched so elaborately” as NevadodelRuiz. The event was a foreseeable catastrophe exacerbated by the populace’s unawareness of the volcano’s destructive history; geologists and other experts had warned authorities and media outlets about the danger over the weeks and days leading up to the eruption. Many victims stayed in their houses as they had been instructed, believing that the eruption had ended. A lahar similar in size to the 1985 event might travel as far as 100 kilometres from the volcano, and could be triggered by a small eruption. The relief efforts were hindered by the composition of the mud, which made it nearly impossible to move through without becoming stuck. Many of Colombia’s cities have programs to raise awareness ofnatural disaster planning programs which have helped save lives in natural disasters. When the volcano erupted in 1989, more than 2,300 people living around it were evacuated. The volcano has erupted three distinct periods, the first 8million years ago, the present period 1,500 years ago and the first 1595 and 1595 years ago.
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This page is based on the article Armero tragedy published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
