BJ Deming

Nevado del Ruiz: June 13, 1547 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 13, 8:47 a.m., Pacific: The cams are clear at the moment, and Ruiz is majestic!

That infrastructure, I believe, is for the Cerro Guali military base whose tasks include close-up volcano observations.

That glorious plume is probably steam, for the most part, since no ash advisory since June 11th has been put up on the VAAC website. I haven’t seen any new TROPOMI alerts on SO2 emissions, either.

[LAYPERSON SPECULATION]The emission may have begun late yesterday/overnight, as the helicorders show a stronger signal starting up that could be caused by the emission.

These two sequential overnight helicorder images (labeled by SGC as 1800 [left] and 0000 [right]) also show what I have highlighted in orange and believe are tornillos, which appear every now and then on the Ruiz tracings.

At first, I though they were instrument glitches but finally saw the classic screw shape on some and recognized them as tornillos.

I don’t know much about tornillos other than the general fact that you don’t want to be near the vent of a volcano that is producing them, as a field party of volcanologists and some laypeople who were watching them work found out, with terrible costs, at another Colombian volcano, Galeras, in 1993.[/LAYPERSON SPECULATION]

Awful things have happened at Colombian volcanoes in the last forty years!

And this is one reason why Colombian volcanologists are among the world’s best.

Here is their bulletin this morning, translated by Google (emphasis by SGC):

Manizales, June 13, 2023 10:05 a.m.

From the monitoring of the activity of the NEVADO DEL RUIZ VOLCANO, the MINISTRY OF MINES AND ENERGY through the COLOMBIAN GEOLOGICAL SERVICE (SGC) informs that:

From 9:00 a.m. from yesterday (June 12) until the time of publication of this bulletin, the activity in general, it continues to show low levels with minor variations. The related seismicity with rock fracturing inside the volcanic structure increased slightly in the number of earthquakes and decreased in seismic energy, compared to June 11. The earthquakes were of low energy and were located mainly in the Arenas crater and the northeastern sectors and east of the volcano, at distances between 1 and 3 km from the crater, and with depths that varied between 1 and 5 km from the top of the volcano.

The seismicity associated with the movement of fluids inside the volcanic conduits showed a slight decrease in the number of earthquakes and in seismic energy levels, compared to 11 of June. Some of the seismic signals were associated with pulsatile ash emissions confirmed through the web cameras used for volcanic monitoring.

On the other hand, variations in the degassing of sulfur dioxide and steam output persist, of water and ash from the crater into the atmosphere. The maximum observed height of the gas column, steam and/or ash emission was 800 m measured from the top of the volcano and the direction of dispersion was to the northwest of the volcanic structure. In the early hours of today, the satellite monitoring platforms reported low-energy thermal anomalies in the background of the crater.

As we have warned, the activity of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano continues to be very unstable. Although several days have passed in which the seismic activity, in general, has decreased with compared 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 oscillatory changes of 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 an important eruption. That is, first it registers a strong increase in its activity, then a considerable decrease 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 the volcano 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

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