BJ Deming

Nevado del Ruiz: June 5, 1657 UTC

  • Status: Orange, but —

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    The take-away here: Ruiz might wind up steadily, if that’s on its agenda, or it might just give them a few minutes’ notice before the “big one.”

  • Interactive official hazard map (autotranslated), via Relief Web; En español
  • USAID April 4th map (autotranslated) posted on May 18 at Relief Web.
  • Links to webcams, public data, and other information.
  • Update archive.

Update, June 5, 9:57 a.m., Pacific: I had a scare last night, but it was just my misinterpretation of moonlight and shadows when looking through one of the SGC webcams aimed at river drainages coming off Ruiz.

It looked like it might be flooded, which could not be the case from weather, as it had been clear and even recent rains — which did cause bad flooding and other problems — had not filled up the ravine so much.

In the moonlight, there appeared to be a good strong steam plume coming off the summit, too, and keeping low.

But I did not panic. Experts — not lay enthusiasts like me — have Ruiz monitored with everything from acoustic lahar detectors to seismometers, satellites, and soldiers.

It’s not impossible that a huge lahar may someday come down that ravine. But if it does, humanity will be raising quite a fuss about it.

Humanity was quiet about Ruiz last night, and so was I after I switched computers, checked again, and saw that ravine open and peaceful under the full moon.

That sort of experience is just par for the course for us lay volcanophiles — we learn from our mistakes and improve our observation, with luck even to the point of a little general usefulness.

But it highlights one of the less emphasized ways to value volcano monitoring. And this needs to be called out at Nevado del Ruiz, where for so many this long crisis is, as I have described it, ROCK🔁HARD PLACE.

Fear stalks the slopes of any active volcano, especially at night, and moonlight gives the human imagination much to work with.

The only antidotes to these two panic-mongers, besides individual faith in something outside oneself (I’ve quite come around to G. K. Chesterton’s view on that liberating factor, though not to his choice of creed), are what have been applied to Nevado del Ruiz in depth: Science and watchfulness.

Would that these could be applied to every volcanic hazard! But this is far from being a perfect world yet.

In the meantime, I thought it worthwhile to share with you my silly little adventure last night.

There is no ash advisory posted on the VAAC website at present, although some were issued in the last 24 hours.

Nevado del Ruiz is not particularly snowy looking this morning, as you can see in Jhon/VIDJCB’s video:

https://youtu.be/-R83yTVpJHg&rel=0

He is reading the current SGC bulletin, and here is the gist of it via Google Translate, with emphasis by SGC:

From 9:00 a.m. yesterday (June 4) until the time of publication of this bulletin, the seismic activity associated with rock fracturing inside the volcanic edifice showed a slight increase in the number of earthquakes and in the seismic energy released, compared to the previous day (3 of June). This seismicity was located mainly in the northeastern sector, at a distance between 3 and 4 km from the crater, with depths ranging between 4 and 5 km. The maximum magnitude recorded
was 1.3, corresponding to the earthquake registered today at 03:50 a.m., located 3 km to the northeast from the Arenas crater, at a depth of 5 km from the top of the volcano. Added to this, yesterday an earthquake was recorded in the Arenas crater at 09:34 a.m., of magnitude 1.2 and 2 km deep.

Seismicity related to the movement of fluids inside the volcanic conduits remained at similar levels in the number of earthquakes and had a slight decrease in seismic energy released in relation to June 3. Some of the seismic signals were associated with pulsatile ash emissions confirmed via web cameras used for monitoring the volcano.

On the other hand, the variations in the degassing of sulfur dioxide and the output of water vapor from the crater to the atmosphere. The maximum height of the gas and vapor column was of 500 m measured from the top of the volcano and the direction of dispersion of the column prevailed to the northwest.

The activity of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano continues to be very unstable. Although it has been several days in which the seismic activity, in general, has decreased with respect to previous weeks, it is important to remember that this does not imply that the volcano has returned to its normal levels of activity, so it is recommended not to get used to these oscillating changes in activity and think that it is a normal behavior of the volcano.

Satellite detection of significant thermal anomalies at the bottom of the crater indicates the presence of very hot material near the surface. It is very important to note that the recurrence of ash output, sometimes pulsatile and sometimes more continuous, the persistence of a slight deformation of the terrain, as well as variations in the output of sulfur dioxide, indicate that the volcano could still make a major eruption in days or weeks. as we have mentioned, on previous occasions, after presenting important changes in its activity, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano has shown a decrease in its activity before a major eruption. That is, first it registers a strong increase in its activity, then a decrease considerable and, subsequently, makes a major eruption.

Therefore, we reiterate that the activity of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano continues at ORANGE LEVEL, which indicates that there is a probability that in days or weeks there will be a larger eruption than has done in the last 10 years. To change levels and return to Yellow level requires a
prudential time where trends and patterns can be observed that allow inferring the possible decrease in activity, aspects that the current activity of the volcano still does not show, reason for which warns that the level of activity of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano will remain at LEVEL ORANGE for several weeks. During this time, in the event of an acceleration of processes that suggest an imminent eruption or the eruption itself, the level of activity will be changed to Red.

We recommend that the community remain calm, follow all the instructions of the Unit National for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) and local authorities, and be attentive to the information provided by the Colombian Geological Service on the evolution of the state of the volcano.

The COLOMBIAN GEOLOGICAL SERVICE will continue to monitor the evolution of the volcanic phenomenon and will inform in a timely manner about the changes that may occur.

For more information visit the following link:
https://www2.sgc.gov.co/Noticias/boletinesDocumentos/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Featured image: Ric Photography/Shutterstock

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.