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The Armero tragedy (Spanish: Tragedia de Armero ) occurred following the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985.

The volcano's eruption after 69 years of dormancy caught nearby towns unprepared, even though volcanological organizations had warned the government to evacuate the area after they had detected volcanic activity two months earlier. As pyroclastic flows erupted from the volcano's crater, they melted the mountain's glaciers, sending four enormous lahars (volcanically induced mudflows, landslides, and debris flows) down the slopes at 50 km/h (30 mph). The lahars picked up speed in gullies and engulfed the town of Armero, killing more than 20,000 of its almost 29,000 inhabitants. Casualties in other towns, particularly Chinchiná, brought the overall death toll to 23,000. Footage and photographs of Omayra Sánchez, a young victim of the disaster, were published around the world. Other photographs of the lahars and the impact of the disaster captured attention worldwide and led to controversy over the degree to which the Colombian government was responsible for the disaster. A banner at a mass funeral in Ibagué read, "The volcano didn't kill 22,000 people. By the time relief workers reached Armero twelve hours after the eruption, many of the victims with serious injuries were dead. This was the second-deadliest volcanic disaster of the 20th century, surpassed only by the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée, and is the fourth-deadliest volcanic event recorded since 1500. The event was a foreseeable catastrophe exacerbated by the populace's unawareness of the volcano's destructive history; geologists and other experts had warned authorities and media outlets about the danger in the weeks and days leading up to the eruption. On the day of the eruption, several evacuation attempts were made, but a severe storm restricted communications. Nevado del Ruiz has erupted several times since 1985, and continues to threaten up to 500,000 people living along the Combeima, Chinchiná, Coello-Toche, and Guali river valleys. A lahar (or group of lahars) similar in size to the 1985 event might travel as far as 100 km (60 mi) from the volcano and could be triggered by a small eruption. To counter this threat, the Colombian government established a specialized office which administers the national system for identification, prevention, preparedness and management of natural disasters, the National Unit for Management of Disasters Risk (Sistema Nacional de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres). The United States Geological Survey also created the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program and the Volcano Crisis Assistance Team, which evacuated roughly 75,000 people from the area around Mount Pinatubo before its 1991 eruption. All Colombian counties, by law, have a territorial plan that includes the identification of natural threats, treatment for building permits and preparedness for the prevention and management of natural disasters through planning programs which have helped save lives in many natural disasters since Armero's tragedy.

The mayor of Armero, Ramon Rodriguez, and other local officials had tried to bring the volcano's potential eruption to the attention of the Colombian government, but to no avail.

Melting just ten percent of the ice would produce lahars with a volume of up to 200×10^6 m3 (7.1×10^9 cu ft) – similar to the lahar that destroyed Armero in 1985. When another Colombian volcano, Nevado del Huila, erupted in April 2008, thousands of people were evacuated because volcanologists worried that the eruption could be another "Nevado del Ruiz". The lessons from the Armero tragedy have inspired a lahar warning system for Mt.

The 1999 Colombian film Soplo de vida (Breath of life), directed by Luis Ospina, tells the story in the context of the Armero tragedy and in which the protagonists are survivors.

(in Spanish) "Armero, 30 years of a tragedy". (in Spanish) Fundación Armando Armero Commemorating and remembering Armero 30 years later

Quick Facts

• By the time relief workers reached Armero twelve hours after the eruption, many of the victims with serious injuries were dead.
• The lahars picked up speed in gullies and engulfed the town of Armero, killing more than 20,000 of its almost 29,000 inhabitants.
• This was the second-deadliest volcanic disaster of the 20th century, surpassed only by the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée, and is the fourth-deadliest volcanic event recorded since 1500.
• (in Spanish) "Armero, 30 years of a tragedy".
• The United States Geological Survey also created the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program and the Volcano Crisis Assistance Team, which evacuated roughly 75,000 people from the area around Mount Pinatubo before its 1991 eruption.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Armero tragedy". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.