128 Annals of Glaciology 45 2007 Review and reassessment of hazards owing to volcano–glacier interactions in Colombia Christian HUGGEL,1 Jorge Luis CEBALLOS,2 Bernardo PULGARI´N,3 Jair RAMI´REZ,3 Jean-Claude THOURET4 1Glaciology and Geomorphodynamics Group, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland E-mail:
[email protected] 2Instituto de Meteorologı´a, Hidrologı´a y Estudios Ambientales, Bogota´, Colombia 3Instituto Colombiano de Geologı´a y Minerı´a, Bogota´, Colombia 4Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans UMR 6524 CNRS, Universite´ Blaise-Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France ABSTRACT. The Cordillera Central in Colombia hosts four important glacier-clad volcanoes, namely Nevado del Ruiz, Nevado de Santa Isabel, Nevado del Tolima and Nevado del Huila. Public and scientific attention has been focused on volcano–glacier hazards in Colombia and worldwide by the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz/Armero catastrophe, the world’s largest volcano–glacier disaster. Important volcanological and glaciological studies were undertaken after 1985. However, recent decades have brought strong changes in ice mass extent, volume and structure as a result of atmospheric warming. Population has grown and with it the sizes of numerous communities located around the volcanoes. This study reviews and reassesses the current conditions of and changes in the glaciers, the interaction processes between ice and volcanic activity and the resulting hazards. Results show a considerable hazard potential from Nevados del Ruiz, Tolima and Huila. Explosive activity within environments of snow and ice as well as non-eruption-related mass movements induced by unstable slopes, or steep and fractured glaciers, can produce avalanches that are likely to be transformed into highly mobile debris flows.