Warning in Colombia about possible volcanic eruption

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Saturday, November 12, 2005

The Galeras volcano could have an eruption at any moment according to Julian Villaruel, director of the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mines (Ingeominas).

The spokesman for the Volcanoes and Seismologic Observatory of Pasto [1], Colombia, explained that the Galeras volcano has registered a level two activity in a scale of 1 to 4, which means that an eruption is likely to happen in days or weeks.

He declared that some of the measurements taken have been analyzed by scientific institutions in the US that have confirmed the likelihood of an eruption.

The observatory and the local committee for the prevention and reduction of disasters (CREPAD) will continue to keep a watchful eye on the behavior of the volcano in order to instruct the residents about the risks and the evacuation routes in case of eruption.

The Galeras summit is 4276 meters (14,028 feet) above sea level. The last time it registered some activity was in 2004. Pasto, at its base, is a city of about 400 thousand people. There are 5 other towns around the Galeras skirts. 60,000 people live around the influence zone and about 9,000 live in the area of highest risk.

Sources

• "Bogotá: Advierten eventual erupción de volcán Galeras". DERF, November 11, 2005 ((Spanish))
• "Autoridades científicas advierten eventual erupción del Galeras". Terra Colombia, November 11, 2005 ((Spanish))
  

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable. Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.