Bibliography

Reference: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1784&page=1 (extracted 28-02-2010)Authors:
Committee on Natural Disasters, Division of Natural Hazard Mitigation, National Research Council

http://www.smate.wwu.edu/teched/geology/vo-eruption2.html (extracted 28-02-2010) Photograph credit: U.S. Geological Survey.
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Nevado.html (extracted 28-02-2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevado_del_Ruiz#Eruption_and_lahars (extracted 28-02-2010)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/13/newsid_2539000/2539731.stm (extracted 28-02-2010)
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Variability.html (extracted 28-02-2010)
http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/colombia/map/m841843/nevado_del_ruiz.html (extracted 28-02-2010)
Pictures:
http://www.smate.wwu.edu/teched/geology/GeoHaz/vo-Eruption2/vo-eruption2-10.JP (extracted 28-02-2010) Photograph credit: U.S. Geological Survey.
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Variability.html (extracted 28-02-2010)
http://feww.wordpress.com/category/volcanoes/ (extracted 28-02-2010)[Source: USGS]

My Reflections

I think that since this event was mostly caused by the neglect from the government officials whom dismissed this event as too alarming and refused too evacuate the people until they were assured of the necessity as well as Colombia having no equipment to monitor the volcano as well as having no geologists in doing so. This could have been prevented if the officials had taken the warning more seriously and evacuated the people hours before the eruption started as well as hiring a few geologists to help them predict or decode any warning signs.

This eruption occured on Wednesday,13th November in 1985

In the Nevado del Ruiz, South America and latitude (DMS) of 4° 54' 0 N and longtitude (DMS)75° 17' 60 W. It occured due to the eastward subduction of the Nazca oceanic plate South American continental plate. The magnitude of the event is estimated to be 3 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index due to it meeting the criteria of the scale, being 10,000,000 m3 in volume of ejecta and a plume height of 3-15 km.A total of four towns in the Andes region, and estimated total of 23,000 people, have been reported to be buried when hot volcanic ash melted part of the ice-cap on the volcano's summit, triggering debris flows, which swept down valleys and buried everything in its path, including the villages as well as fallen bridges and impassable roads.Another 4,500 people were injured and about 8,000 made homeless,the estimated cost of disaster is $1,000,000,000. The event had initially shown warning signs such as minor earthquakes and steam eruptions for 51 weeks prior to the eruption, however, some government officials dissmissed this as "too alarming" and did not want to want to evacuate anyone unless they were assured of the necessity and now, the government has asked the United Nations for help.

Wednesday,13th November,1985

The second most deadly eruption in the 20th century occured on this day in northern Colombia, the Nevado del Ruiz.

This blog is for school testing purpose