Armero tragedy
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The Armero Tragedy (Spanish: Tragedia de Armero) was the aftermath of the November 13, 1985 Nevado del Ruiz Volcano eruption in Tolima, Colombia. The eruption of lava melted the mountain's large ice cap and produced floods, mudslides and a series of lahars that ultimately covered the town of Armero and killed most of its population, over 20,000 people out of 29,000 inhabitants.[1] Armero was the second largest town in the Tolima Department after the Department capital, Ibagué. The volcano had been dormant for almost 150 years before 1985.
Geologists and other experts had warned authorities and media outlets about the danger over the weeks and days leading up to the eruption. When interviewed by reporters, a number of different officials told the inhabitants that the city was safe and downplayed the possible effects, possibly due to the cynicism created by previous false evacuation orders. The night before the explosion, the mayor of Armero himself assured citizens that there was nothing to fear.
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[edit] 1985 Destruction
On the night of November 13, 1985 Nevado del Ruiz erupted, spewing volcanic ash and causing lahars 60 meters thick. Only one quarter of the population of Armero survived the lahar. The city was buried in ash and mud, and remains buried to this day, much like the city of Pompeii. Footage and photos of Omayra Sánchez, a young victim of the tragedy, were published around the world.
The explosion of the volcano was not the main cause of the disappearance of Armero. The Lagunilla river had been blocked for more than 2 months, when considerably smaller eruptions of the Arenas volcano had melted part of the Ruiz mountain. As a result, the Lagunilla ended up looking more like a lake than a river.
The night the volcano erupted, fluidized mass of rock fragments and gases fell into the Lagunilla river, creating a megatsunami of mud, ash and water. It is estimated that the wave was traveling at 300 miles per hour as it hit Armero. Traveling through the narrow Lagunilla river, it gained speed and power as it hit the plains of the city of Armero. It took less than 15 minutes from the time of the eruption, to the time when the city was gone.
Gigantic rocks embedded in the bottom of the Lagunilla river were moved from their prehistoric positions and started travelling along with the wave, helping to destroy everything in its path. After the first few hours, a lesser secondary wave caused further damage. The next morning, the pilot of a plane transmitting to Colombia's Civil Defense system, overflying what was supposed to be Armero, is known to have remarked: "My God, Armero has been erased from the map", "Dios mio, Armero ha sido borrada del mapa".
[edit] See also
- Pompeii, a city which shared a similar fate, but with a difference: Pompeya was covered with volcanic ash, not by a Lahar, as Armero.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Schuster, Robert L. and Highland, Lynn M. (2001). Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Landslides in the Western Hemisphere, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 01-0276. Also previously published in the Proceedings of the Third Panamerican Symposium on Landslides, July 29 to August 3, 2001, Cartagena, Colombia. Castaneda Martinez, Jorge E., and Olarte Montero, Juan, eds.,
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