qu: what happened at nevado del...

C/W Qu: What happened at Nevado Del Ruiz, Columbia in 1985?

10/10/13

Aim: To describe the nature of the Nevado Del Ruiz eruption, and contrast its impacts, management and response to Mt St Helens (2 lessons)

Starter: What do you think caused this?:

WhatisBanksy'smessagehere?

30secondsinyourgroups

Rememberthiswhenwatchingthefootageoftheyounggirlinthevideo.

On the Pacific Ring of fire

Mr Anstey visitied a volcano here and here. Same cause!

Over 23,000 people died when a lahar, started by a relatively minor eruption of the volcano, swept down the river valleys the side of the edifice and destroyed Armero and Chinchina. The footage of rescue efforts after the lahar were devastating and heartbreaking. Sadly, this disaster was mostly preventable as the citizens of these towns could have had at least an hour's warning to walk to higher ground, but the Colombian government did not have an effective plan in place.

Omayra Sanchez, 13 yearold victim of the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano

If any good came from this event, it was that it opened many people's eyes around the world to the dangers posed by volcanoes and the relatively simple solutions to preventing tragedies like this.

Nevado Del Ruizyou have 30 seconds on your table to selct one word in this paragraph you think is the most important

Task

AMERO TOWN CENTRE

Nevado Del Ruiz

The November 13, 1985 lahar from Nevado del Ruiz The lahar deposit forms the flat plane at the base of the River Lagunillas canyon. The lethal lahar killed over 23,000 people, most of which were from the town of Armero, located about 70 kilometers from the volcano.

RISK ASSESSMENT AND HAZARD MAPPING: The processes that never happened

Mini Starter/Plenary: Explain the following statement

A banner at a mass funeral in the town of Ibague read,

"The volcano didn't kill 23,000 people. The government killed them."

Activities

1. DVD 50. Watch the items about the eruption. Note down basic details. eg. Date, death toll, damage$ and other impacts.

2. Use pg.s 116117 in OCR Geography to supplement notes.

Facts Causes Effects Management

4. Complete the gap fill to find more information about the response effort and the problems with it.

3. Complete literacy exercise about how well prepared Armero was for such a disaster

23:50

5. Use the following resources to make further notes under these headings: handout pg.3334 in Ross pg. 43 in Waugh Pg.s 8588 in Frampton.

6) Student activity pg. 86

Homework: Due Monday 1st: Complete Q3 from June 2012 paper in BCS Past Exam Booklet

"With reference to two volcanic events you have studied from contrasting areas of the world, compare the ways in which volcanoes and their impacts have been managed." [10 marks]

1 The extent to which tectonic processes represent hazards, depends on when and where they are experienced. Discuss this statement. (40 marks)

1."The hazards presented by volcanic and seismic events have the greatest impact on the world's poorest people." To what extent do you agree with this view? [40 marks]

June 2010

Sample Q

Want extra exam practice?

http://beechencliffhumanities.weebly.com/a2.html

http://beechencliffhumanities.weebly.com/a2.html

Mt St Helens (1980) and Nevado Del Ruiz (1985) compared

Factor St Helens USA (MEDC) Nevado Del Ruiz Columbia (LEDC)

Damage $$ (effects of

infrastructure/buildings)

Response

Effects on humans

Future Lessons

Causes

Management

Plenary

WHAT WENT WRONG?When rescuers arrived at Armero on November 14, they were greeted by a horrible scene. They found tangled masses of trees, cars, and mutilated bodies scattered throughout an ocean of gray mud. Injured survivors lay moaning in agony while workers tried frantically to save them. Altogether, about 23,000 people and 15,000 animals were killed. Another 4500 people were injured and about 8000 people were made homeless. The estimated cost of the disaster is $1,000,000,000, or about onefifth of the Colombia's Gross National Product.This is a tragedy that could have been averted. Nevado del Ruiz had served up a steady menu of minor earthquakes and steam eruptions for 51 weeks prior to the November 13 eruption. The ongoing activity was just enough to keep people nervous, but not enough to convince authorities that the volcano provided a real threat to the communities surrounding the volcano. Since Colombia had no equipment to monitor the volcano, or geologists skilled in using such equipment, expertise could only come from other countries. A scientific commission and some journalists visited the crater in late February and soon after a report of the volcanic activity first appeared in the newspaper La Patria in early March. By July, seismographs were obtained from several countries to monitor earthquakes which would help in plotting the movement of rising magma beneath the volcano. Money was obtained from the Unified Nations to help map the areas that were thought to be at the greatest risk. The resulting report and volcanic hazards map were finished on October 7, but only ten copies were distributed. Based on the report, the National Bureau of Geology and Mines (INGEOMINAS) declared that a moderate eruption would produce " . . . a 100 percent probability of mudflows . . . with great danger for Armero . . . Ambalema, and the lower part of the River Chinchina." However, some government officials dismissed the report as "too alarming" and authorities did not want to evacuate people until they were assured of the necessity. Continuous earth tremors began beneath the volcano on November 10. This prompted a group of scientists to visit the crater on November 12. However, they saw nothing to suggest eminent danger and they did not recommend an evacuation. The 23,000 people that would die the following day would underscore a tragic failure that led to the second most deadly eruption of the twentieth century

A sea of soil

A high number 24 hours later

A food list to make you tremor

Equipment gained in the summer A media trip to a hole in the ground

Every chance it will happen

Non stop shakingA fraction of GNP

Silver medal for this eventA country lacking kit


A sea of soil



Equipm

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ined

in the

sum

mer

A media trip to a hole in

the ground

Non stop shaking

A fraction of GNP

Silver medal for this event

A country lac

king kit

WHATWENTWRONG?WhenrescuersarrivedatArmeroonNovember14,theyweregreetedbyahorriblescene.Theyfoundtangledmassesoftrees,cars,andmutilatedbodiesscatteredthroughoutanoceanofgraymud.Injuredsurvivorslaymoaninginagonywhileworkerstriedfranticallytosavethem.Altogether,about23,000peopleand15,000animalswerekilled.Another4500peoplewereinjuredandabout8000peopleweremadehomeless.Theestimatedcostofthedisasteris$1,000,000,000,oraboutonefifthoftheColombia'sGrossNationalProduct.Thisisatragedythatcouldhavebeenaverted.NevadodelRuizhadservedupasteadymenuofminorearthquakesandsteameruptionsfor51weekspriortotheNovember13eruption.Theongoingactivitywasjustenoughtokeeppeoplenervous,butnotenoughtoconvinceauthoritiesthatthevolcanoprovidedarealthreattothecommunitiessurroundingthevolcano.SinceColombiahadnoequipmenttomonitorthevolcano,orgeologistsskilledinusingsuchequipment,expertisecouldonlycomefromothercountries.AscientificcommissionandsomejournalistsvisitedthecraterinlateFebruaryandsoonafterareportofthevolcanicactivityfirstappearedinthenewspaperLaPatriainearlyMarch.ByJuly,seismographswereobtainedfromseveralcountriestomonitorearthquakeswhichwouldhelpinplottingthemovementofrisingmagmabeneaththevolcano.MoneywasobtainedfromtheUnifiedNationstohelpmaptheareasthatwerethoughttobeatthegreatestrisk.TheresultingreportandvolcanichazardsmapwerefinishedonOctober7,butonlytencopiesweredistributed.Basedonthereport,theNationalBureauofGeologyandMines(INGEOMINAS)declaredthatamoderateeruptionwouldproduce"...a100percentprobabilityofmudflows...withgreatdangerforArmero...Ambalema,andthelowerpartoftheRiverChinchina."However,somegovernmentofficialsdismissedthereportas"tooalarming"andauthoritiesdidnotwanttoevacuatepeopleuntiltheywereassuredofthenecessity.ContinuousearthtremorsbeganbeneaththevolcanoonNovember10.ThispromptedagroupofscientiststovisitthecrateronNovember12.However,theysawnothingtosuggesteminentdangerandtheydidnotrecommendanevacuation.The23,000peoplethatwoulddiethefollowingdaywouldunderscoreatragicfailurethatledtothesecondmostdeadlyeruptionofthetwentiethcentury

Highlightthisbitingreen.It'sveryimportant.Why?

explainyourselffully

About 20,000 people are feared dead after a volcanic eruption in northern Colombia. Four towns in the Andes region are reported to have been buried when ash spewed out of the volcano, Nevado del Ruiz, causing a mudslide.

The worstaffected was Armero, the province of Tolima's second largest city, about 50 miles from the Colombian capital, Bogota. Armero, which lay in a valley below the 16,200foot high (4,937m) volcano, was virtually destroyed buried by mud and rubble swept down on to it.

The fatal eruption happened during the night when most of the town's 27,000 residents were in bed. Nevado del Ruiz, known locally as "the Sleeping Lion", had not erupted for nearly 150 years.

Increased activity Even though it is located only 310 miles (500 km) from the equator, the volcano's summit is covered with snow. It had given some warning of increased activity in recent months there had been some rumblings from the crater but the authorities had told Armero residents it was safe to remain in the city. The initial blast began on Wednesday afternoon when ash came showering down. An evacuation was ordered but abandoned when the volcano went quiet at about 1900 local time. However, just after 2100 a more serious eruption began causing the summit's icecap to melt and carry mud and debris down the mountain at speeds of up to 30 miles (50 km) per hour. The town of Armero lay in the socalled "Ring of Fire", an unstable area of the earth's crust encircling the Pacific Ocean which includes most of the world's active volcanoes. The Colombian government has appealed to the United Nations for help. However, rescue efforts are being hampered by fallen bridges and impassable roads.

1985: Volcano kills thousands in Colombia

A few days before the disaster, a Colombian geology student, Jos Luis Restrepo, had come to Armero on a field trip. After playing billiards, he was returning to his hotel at about 10:50 p.m., when the lahar arrived. His recollection of events were recorded by Dr. Barry Voight:

"We didn't hear any kind of alarm, even when the ash was falling and we were in the hotel . . . we turned on the radio . . . The mayor was talking and he said not to worry, that it was a rain of ash, that they had not reported anything from the Nevado, and to stay calm in our houses. There was a local radio station and we were listening to it, when suddenly it went off the air . . . about fifteen seconds later, the electric power went out and that's when we started hearing the noise in the air, like something toppling, falling, and we didn't hear anything else, no alarm . . . The priest from Armero had supposedly spoken on a loudspeaker [around 6:00 p.m.] and had said the same thing: that there was no need to leave Armero . . . When we went out, the cars were swaying and running people down . . . there was total darkness, the only light was provided by cars . . . we were running and were about to reach the corner when a river of water came down the streets . . . we turned around screaming, towards the hotel, because the waters were already dragging beds along, overturning cars, sweeping people away . . . we went back to the hotel, a threestory building with a terrace, built of cement and very sturdy . . . Suddenly, I heard bangs, and looking towards the rear of the hotel I saw something like foam, coming down out of the darkness . . . It was a wall of mud approaching the hotel, and sure enough, it crashed against the rear of the hotel and started crushing walls . . . . And then the ceiling slab fractured and . . . the entire building was destroyed and broken into pieces. Since the building was made of cement, I thought that it would resist, but the boulderfilled mud was coming in such an overwhelming way, like a wall of tractors, razing the city, razing everything . . . . Then the university bus, that was in a parking lot next to the hotel, was higher than us on a wave of mud and on fire, and it exploded, so I covered my face, thinking this is where I die a horrible death . . . There was a little girl who I thought was decapitated, but . . . her head was buried in the mud . . . A lady told me, 'look, that girl moved a leg'. Then I moved toward her and my legs sank into the mud, which was hot but not burning, and I started to get the little girl out, but when I saw her hair was caught, that seemed to me the most unfair thing in the whole world." from A. Scarth (1999)

The Colombian volcano Nevado del Ruiz is an active stratovolcano with a history of generating deadly volcanic mudflows (lahars ) from relatively smallvolume eruptions. In 1595, a lahar swept down the valleys of the River Guali and the River Lagunillas, killing 636 people. In 1845, an immense lahar flooded the upper valley of the River Lagunillas, killing over 1000 people. It continued for 70 kilometers downstream before spreading across a plain in the lower valley floor. The young village of Armero was built directly on top of the 1845 mudflow deposit. Over the ensuing years, Armero grew into a vibrant town with over 27,000 residents. On November 13, 1985, history repeated itself for the third time in 400 years, with another eruption and another deadly lahar racing down the River Lagunillas. This time, over 23,000 people were killed, including most of the residents of Armero. With proper planning, this tragedy could have been averted. Click volcanic hazards map for more information.

Nevado del Ruiz is the northernmost of several Colombian stratovolcanoes in the Andes Volcanic Chain of western South America. The Andean volcanic belt is generated by the eastward subduction of the Nazca oceanic plate beneath the South American continental plate. Typically, such stratovolcanoes generate explosive Plinian eruptions with associated pyroclastic flows that can melt snow and glaciers near the summit, thus producing

History Nature of the volcanic hazard

After nearly a year of minor earthquakes and steam explosions from Nevado del Ruiz, the volcano exploded violently on November 13, 1985. The initial blast began at 3:06 p.m., and two hours later pumice fragments and ash were showering down on Armero. However, the citizens of Amero remained calm. They were placated by reassuring messages from the mayor over radio, and from a local priest over the church public address system. Nevertheless, the Red Cross ordered an evacuation of the town at 7:00 p.m. However, shortly after the evacuation order the ash stopped falling and the evacuation was called off.

At 9:08 p.m., just as calm was being restored, molten rock began to erupt from the summit crater for the first time (all previous eruptions were steam explosions). The violent ejection of this molten rock generated hot pyroclastic flows and airfall tephra that began to melt the summit ice cap. Unfortunately, a storm obscured the summit area so that most citizens were unaware of the pyroclastic eruption. Meltwater quickly mixed with the erupting pyroclastic fragments to generate a series of hot lahars. One lahar flowed down the River Cauca, submerging the village Chinchina and killing 1,927 people. Other lahars followed the paths of the 1595 and 1845 mudflows. Traveling at 50 kilometers per hour, the largest of these burst through an upstream damn on the River Lagunillas and reached Armero two hours after the eruption began. Most of the town was swept away or buried in only a few short minutes, killing three quarters of the townspeople.

THE NOVEMBER 13, 1985 ERUPTION: impacts

Nevado Del Ruiz handout

When rescuers arrived at Armero on November 14, they were greeted by a horrible scene. They found tangled masses of trees, cars, and mutilated bodies scattered throughout an ocean of gray mud. Injured survivors lay moaning in agony while workers tried frantically to save them. Altogether, about 23,000 people and 15,000 animals were killed. Another 4500 people were injured and about 8000 people were made homeless.

The estimated cost of the disaster is $1,000,000,000, or about onefifth of the Colombia's Gross National Product.

This is a tragedy that could have been averted. Nevado del Ruiz had served up a steady menu of minor earthquakes and steam eruptions for 51 weeks prior to the November 13 eruption. The ongoing activity was just enough to keep people nervous, but not enough to convince authorities that the volcano provided a real threat to the communities surrounding the volcano.

Since Colombia had no equipment to monitor the volcano, or geologists skilled in using such equipment, expertise could only come from other countries. A scientific commission and some journalists visited the crater in late February and soon after a report of the volcanic activity first appeared in the newspaper La Patria in early March. By July, seismographs were obtained from several countries to monitor earthquakes which would help in plotting the movement of rising magma beneath the volcano. Money was obtained from the Unified Nations to help map the areas that were thought to be at the greatest risk.

The resulting report and volcanic hazards map were finished on October 7, but only ten copies were distributed. Based on the report, the National Bureau of Geology and Mines (INGEOMINAS) declared that a moderate eruption would produce " . . . a 100 percent probability of mudflows . . . with great danger for Armero . . . Ambalema, and the lower part of the River Chinchina."

However, some government officials dismissed the report as "too alarming" and authorities did not want to evacuate people until they were assured of the necessity. Continuous earth tremors began beneath the volcano on November 10. This prompted a group of scientists to visit the crater on November 12. However, they saw nothing to suggest eminent danger and they did not recommend an evacuation. The 23,000 people that would die the following day would underscore a tragic failure that led to the secondmostdeadlyeruptionofthetwentiethcentury.

ManagementandResponse:WHATWENTWRONG?

The eruption occurred at the same time as the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (19th Sept), limiting the amount of supplies that could be sent

Efforts were organized in the nearbye town of Ibague and the capital Bogot where medical teams gathered. Makeshift triage stations were established but were soon overwhelmed with the sheer number of victims.

The US government spent over $1 million in aid.

The US Government sent one member of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an AID disasterrelief expert, 12 helicopters with support and medical personnel from Panama and 500 tents, 2,250 blankets

Rescue efforts were hindered by the soft mud that was up to 15 ft deep in some places, making it difficult for anyone to walk across without sinking in

The highway connected to Armero and several bridges to it had been demolished by the lahars.

Nearly 4,000 relief workers and rescue team members helped in total

The Response Effort

Problems with the Response Effort

The disaster had not been properly planned for as the hazard maps hadn't been distributed meaning that there were no teams and resources waiting or a well coordinated plan in place

Ecuador supplied a mobile hospital

It took twelve hours for the first survivors to be rescued, so those with serious but treatable injuries probably died before the rescuers arrived.

Armero's hospital was destroyed in the eruption

Helicopters moved survivors to nearby hospitals.

helicopters highway planned hospital tents died mud coordinated earthquake

Ibague 4,000 $1 million destroyed

The eruption occurred at the same time as the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (19th Sept), limiting the amount of supplies that could be sent

Efforts were organized in the nearbye town of Ibague and the capital Bogot where medical teams gathered. Makeshift triage stations were established but were soon overwhelmed with the sheer number of victims.

The US government spent over $1 million in aid.

The US Government sent one member of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an AID disasterrelief expert, 12 helicopters with support and medical personnel from Panama and 500 tents, 2,250 blankets

Rescue efforts were hindered by the soft mud that was up to 15 ft deep in some places, making it difficult for anyone to walk across without sinking in

The highway connected to Armero and several bridges to it had been demolished by the lahars.

Nearly 4,000 relief workers and rescue team members helped in total

The Response Effort ANSWERS

Problems with the Response Effort

The disaster had not been properly planned for as the hazard maps hadn't been distributed meaning that there were no teams and resources waiting or a well coordinated plan in place

Ecuador supplied a mobile hospital

It took twelve hours for the first survivors to be rescued, so those with serious but treatable injuries probably died before the rescuers arrived.

Armero's hospital was destroyed in the eruption

Helicopters moved survivors to nearby hospitals.

helicopters highway planned hospital tents died mud coordinated earthquake

Ibague 4,000 $1 million destroyed

clickonayellowandsendtothebacktheyareallgroupedsowillallmovetogether

A sea of soil






Silver medal for this event A country lacking kit

A sea of soil







A sea of soil







A sea of soil







Too small a number

Too small a number

Too small a number

Too small a number

A sea of soil







Too small a number

Attachments

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