Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Tectonic events and nuclear facilities
- 2 The nature of tectonic hazards
- 3 The nature of volcanism
- 4 Tectonic uplift and subsidence
- 5 Glacial isostatic adjustment: implications for glacially induced faulting and nuclear waste repositories
- 6 Using global positioning system data to assess tectonic hazards
- 7 Tectonic setting of volcanic centers in subduction zones: three-dimensional structure of mantle wedge and arc crust
- 8 Conceptual model for small-volume alkali basalt petrogenesis: implications for volcanic hazards at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
- 9 Aspects of volcanic hazard assessment for the Bataan nuclear power plant, Luzon Peninsula, Philippines
- 10 Multi-disciplinary probabilistic tectonic hazard analysis
- 11 Tsunami hazard assessment
- 12 Regional-scale volcanology in support of site-specific investigations
- 13 Exploring long-term hazards using a Quaternary volcano database
- 14 Estimating spatial density with kernel methods
- 15 Cox process models for the estimation of long-term volcanic hazard
- 16 Spatial distribution of eruptive centers about the Idaho National Laboratory
- 17 Modeling the flow of basaltic magma into subsurface nuclear facilities
- 18 Intrusion dynamics for volatile-poor basaltic magma into subsurface nuclear installations
- 19 Volcanic risk assessment at Yucca Mountain, NV, USA: integration of geophysics, geology and modeling
- 20 Geological issues in practice: experience in siting US nuclear facilities
- 21 Characterizing active tectonic structures for nuclear facilities in Japan
- 22 Issues for coastal sites
- 23 Stable tectonic settings: designing site investigations to establish the tectonic basis for design and safety evaluation of geological repositories in Scandinavia
- 24 The impact of subsidence, uplift and erosion on geological repositories for radioactive wastes
- 25 Recommendations for assessing volcanic hazards at sites of nuclear installations
- 26 Formal expert assessment in probabilistic seismic and volcanic hazard analysis
- Index
- Map
3 - The nature of volcanism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Tectonic events and nuclear facilities
- 2 The nature of tectonic hazards
- 3 The nature of volcanism
- 4 Tectonic uplift and subsidence
- 5 Glacial isostatic adjustment: implications for glacially induced faulting and nuclear waste repositories
- 6 Using global positioning system data to assess tectonic hazards
- 7 Tectonic setting of volcanic centers in subduction zones: three-dimensional structure of mantle wedge and arc crust
- 8 Conceptual model for small-volume alkali basalt petrogenesis: implications for volcanic hazards at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
- 9 Aspects of volcanic hazard assessment for the Bataan nuclear power plant, Luzon Peninsula, Philippines
- 10 Multi-disciplinary probabilistic tectonic hazard analysis
- 11 Tsunami hazard assessment
- 12 Regional-scale volcanology in support of site-specific investigations
- 13 Exploring long-term hazards using a Quaternary volcano database
- 14 Estimating spatial density with kernel methods
- 15 Cox process models for the estimation of long-term volcanic hazard
- 16 Spatial distribution of eruptive centers about the Idaho National Laboratory
- 17 Modeling the flow of basaltic magma into subsurface nuclear facilities
- 18 Intrusion dynamics for volatile-poor basaltic magma into subsurface nuclear installations
- 19 Volcanic risk assessment at Yucca Mountain, NV, USA: integration of geophysics, geology and modeling
- 20 Geological issues in practice: experience in siting US nuclear facilities
- 21 Characterizing active tectonic structures for nuclear facilities in Japan
- 22 Issues for coastal sites
- 23 Stable tectonic settings: designing site investigations to establish the tectonic basis for design and safety evaluation of geological repositories in Scandinavia
- 24 The impact of subsidence, uplift and erosion on geological repositories for radioactive wastes
- 25 Recommendations for assessing volcanic hazards at sites of nuclear installations
- 26 Formal expert assessment in probabilistic seismic and volcanic hazard analysis
- Index
- Map
Summary
Few people living in the town of Armero, Colombia, realized the immediate danger they faced in the autumn of 1985. Nevado Del Ruiz volcano, 65 km from Armero, had reawakened after more than one hundred years of repose. During the previous year new magma had risen beneath this ice-capped Andean volcano (Figure 3.1) to within a few kilometers of the surface. Intermittent explosions showered the summit glacier with pyroclasts, fragments of rock propelled by the sudden expansion of volcanic gases within the ascending magma. After months of this intermittent explosive activity, a much larger explosive eruption sent pyroclastic flows, hot gaseous clouds loaded with pyroclastic rock fragments, across the summit glaciers. The ice melted rapidly and water mixed with pyroclasts swept into river channels that source high on the volcano.
When these flows, termed lahars, reached the rainforest on the flanks of the volcano, their energy was sufficient to completely strip the channel banks of vegetation (Figure 3.2). The lahars that descended the Rio Lagunilla canyon toward Armero had incredible momentum. The river takes a sharp bend 1 km upstream from the mouth of the canyon, where the flow debouched onto the alluvial plain and through the town of Armero. Here, the momentum of the flow, created by a loss of elevation of about 5 km along the 65 km flow path, carried the flow up and over the river's steep embankment.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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