Colombia Nevado De Ruiz Volcano Showing New Activity

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Authorities in Colombia say a towering volcano is showing renewed activity and could erupt in weeks or days.

Gas and vapor has been rising periodically from the Nevado de Ruiz volcano since February and the country's geology institute says people in some areas are reporting "strong odors of sulfur."

As of Friday, officials have not yet ordered any evacuations around the 17,457-foot (5,321-meter) volcano roughly 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of the country's capital, Bogota.

A 1985 eruption at the volcano brought a river of rocks and mud sweeping across the town of Armero, killing 25,000 people.

Comments

[danny saunders]

01:46 PM on 04/10/2012

"I feel the earth move under my feet." - Carol King

"I HEART me some plate tectonics!" - Danny Saunders

[LMPE]

09:56 PM on 04/09/2012

From: me

To: plate tectonics

Dear Sir or Madame:

I would like to request that the next time that you cause an earthquake or make a volcano erupt, that you do something useful with it. Instead of these random quakes or eruptions, why not level Fox News or bury the Clear Channel headquarters?

[stargazer13]

10:53 PM on 04/09/2012

love your bio :)

good to see ya :)

[oldwolf49]

02:55 AM on 04/10/2012

Fantabulous.

[palindrom]

11:30 PM on 04/07/2012

Those interested in volcanoes may wish to follow Eric Klemetti's "Eruptions" blog on Wired Science.

[evesapple]

04:13 PM on 04/09/2012

Thanks!

[palindrom]

11:28 PM on 04/07/2012

Very few Americans are aware of the Armero tragedy, I think. It killed as many people as the Japanese tsunamis, yet received relatively little coverage at the time.

Basically, the volcano erupted at night -- it wasn't well monitored -- and melted a huge amount of ice, which built a gigantic volcanic mudflow that completely buried a small city without any significant warning. Eyewitness accounts are horrifying and heart-rending.

[bruce1234]

05:06 PM on 04/07/2012

and liberals are wondering where are all the Co2 is coming from.

[palindrom]

11:25 PM on 04/07/2012

No, we're not wondering. Volcanos emit about 1/100 the CO2 that humans do.

This has been well-known for many years, and it's not controversial in the least.

[Debbie338]

11:29 AM on 04/10/2012

It's probably controversial to someone who doesn't believe in plate tectonics, either.

[powder chowder]

03:17 PM on 04/08/2012

we know where its coming from; it's spewing out of tea bags.

[Robert Fanney]

02:01 PM on 04/07/2012

Time to get out...

[Winterseeker]

02:07 AM on 04/07/2012

They should look further back in the record to see if there is any pattern in the periodicity of eruptions...if the past 2 or 3 were around 25 years apart then they really should be worried...otherwise it could simply be a release of gases without an eruption. Thankfully for most volcanoes (unlike the climate these days) we can still use the historical record to help predict future events!

[mamacat]

01:24 AM on 04/07/2012

It has been active for 27 years, so what could go wrong?

[vakh]

01:25 PM on 04/07/2012

A hiccup

[plans includingdog]

12:52 AM on 04/07/2012

they will have to stay on guard for heightened seismic activity.Lets not recreate the Armero tragedy.It is a volcano that has seen activity recently.

[greytunes]

12:55 PM on 04/07/2012

Harmonic tremors, the two words that scare all the scientists.

[Darkingz]

08:10 PM on 04/07/2012

see the problem is that the scientists if they cry foul too early they get skewered, if they call foul too late tradegy occurs and they still get skewered. From my understanding there is still some controversy on how to "predict" an eruption other than harmonic tremors, which is still slightly unreliable about time frames. Then every volcano is different so you have problems there too. Hopefully a pattern can be established, but so far none has been found.

[palindrom]

07:36 PM on 04/08/2012

Having said that, they got really lucky with Pinatubo. The evacuation order came at just the right time -- they didn't cry wolf. A few days after the order, the volcano exploded in one of the largest eruptions of the 20th Century. If the people hadn't moved out, many thousands would have perished.

[madfam004]

08:44 PM on 04/06/2012

Where there is smoke, there is .........

[evesapple]

04:14 PM on 04/09/2012

lava!

[aforbes808]

06:50 PM on 04/06/2012

She's just getting warmed up.

[ugly american]

05:10 PM on 04/06/2012

It sounds like evacuation of the area would be very prudent.

[Darkingz]

08:13 PM on 04/07/2012

but costly that's why most scientists don't try to call out for one the minute it seems prudent.

[addisonsteele]

04:27 PM on 04/06/2012

Just one question: is there a volcano that is not towering?

[yeti7]

07:25 PM on 04/06/2012

yes

[ugly american]

02:37 AM on 04/07/2012

Some are not. The most powerful super volcanoes don't look anything like one thinks of a volcano. A good example is the Yellowstone Caldera. A volcano about 35 by 20 miles wide sits under it and it is a depression in the Earth. If it ever blows, it will make Mount Saint Helen look like a firecracker. What worse is there are seven of these bad boys around the world.

[greytunes]

12:58 PM on 04/07/2012

Most scientists think that a Yellowstone eruption would be a "zipper" type event. The whole caldera won't blast at the same time. One eruption will lead to the opening of the caldera like a zipper. I hope so, I live here, love it, just hope for enough time to head out with my family.

[greytunes]

12:59 PM on 04/07/2012

Also the Toba eruption 70,000 or so years ago allegedly bottlenecked human DNA down to just a few strains. There might have been 10 to 12 breeding females left. Pretty disheartening.

[Kommonman]

04:23 PM on 04/06/2012

The unstoppable force of a living planet...creation and destruction all in one fiery act