Volcan de Colima
Cofradia de Suchitlan
March 1, 2015
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| Volcan de Colima or Fuego |
About 20 kilometers away from Cofradia, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. I stare up at a massive piece of earth, pushing rock and lava down its sides and smoke out of the top. As we are pulling up to a gas station, the volcano belches and up shoots another massive plume. I wonder how volcanoes work. If you are wondering as well then read this blog.
There are three main types of volcanoes. One is a divergent plate volcano. This is when two plates are moving apart and lava flows up through a gap. Iceland has good examples of this type. Another type is a hot spot or shield volcano. This is when a plate moves over a hot spot in the earths core. Lava flows up to the surface and forms a volcano. The Hawaiian islands are made up of shield volcanoes. The lava flows to the surface very slowly and builds to form the island. The last type is a stratovolcano. They are formed when one plate subducts underneath another and creates friction which forces lava up to the surface. There are 7 or 8 major plates on earth that are floating on magma. Volcan de Colima is a stratovolcano.
There are three major types of explosions from stratovolcanoes. The first is effusive which is when lava slowly flows down the side of the volcano. These don't kill many people. Lava can reach a couple kilometers from the volcano. The second type is an explosive or souffiere type eruption. These can be large and have significant pyrocastic flows. Pyrocastic flows are a mix of hot gas and rock that travel close to the ground. They can be big or small. The last type are plinian or sub-plinian. These are massive eruptions that are very rare. Mt. St. Helens (Santa Helena in Spanish) and Mt. Pinatubo in the Philipines are examples of these big eruptions. These were named after Pliny the Younger who saw Mt. Vesuvius eruption in Pompeii, Italy in 79AD. His dad, Pliny the Elder, died in the eruption.
Volcan de Colima has a height of 3,839 meters (some people call Fuego which means fire) and its brother, Nevada de Colima has a height of 4320 meters. Some people call it Nieve means snow in Spanish. It is a dormant volcano. It is located on the continental plate. It was formed by an oceanic plate going under the continental plate. This is called subduction. This creates friction that forces magma up to the surface. There have been major plinian eruptions 8 or 9 times over the past 30,000 years. Sub-plinian eruptions at Volcan de Colima happen every 100 years or so. The last big one was in 1913 when a few people and lots of cows died. So we are due for a big one. The volcano has been very active lately and we see big fumarolas, or plumes every day. A volcanologist told us that these were more superficial blasts from the top half of the volcano and that they were not a sign of the big one being near.
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| Start of a puff |
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| You can see the trail of pyrocastic flow. The lahars flow down these. |
One of the main dangers of the volcano is lahars or mud flows. They occur in the rainy season around here (June-October) when heavy rains wash down all the rock and ash and create flash floods. These torrents can move rocks bigger than cars. There are lots of rivers filled with rock from the lahars. One is near a town called la Becerera. A few years ago, a lahar filled up a house and two kids barely escaped.
As I sit in the car at the gas station I'm amazed by the size and power of the volcano looming in front of me but on the other hand I'm scared that this big piece of rock will explode and destroy the beautiful land. It's interesting to learn about how the volcano was made and how it grows every day. Still I sure wouldn't want to be here when that thing blows up. Thanks for reading.
Here is a link to a video of the volcan- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHNQB8-mvQw
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| Volcano Alert Sign. They are always on yellow which means be alert. |
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| Nevada de Nieve covered with nieve. |
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| We saw an eruption just like this while camping one night. |
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| Can you say Fumarola? |
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| My mom got to do a plane flight above the volcano |
