Guatemala volcano latest: Fuego unleashes flow of burning sediment prompting evacuations
A NEW hot sediment flow has been released from Guatemala’s Fuego volcano prompting authorities to evacuate residents, a week after a major eruption killed 110 people.
By AMANI HUGHES
Express.co.uk
Sun, Jun 10, 2018
The initial eruption of Fuego has left at least 110 people dead and 200 people missing after the Volcano of Fire spewed fast-moving deadly pyroclastic flows last Sunday.
Guatemala’s seismology and volcanology institute said the new lahar – a flow of mud, debris, water and pyroclastic material – was fed by rains and tore down trees as it swept through ravines and gullies.
A rise in the Panaleon river caused by the new outflow led authorities to evacuate 72 people from the community of Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa.
Alisha Clark, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University, said it is unknown whether the volcano, which continues to erupt, will produce further pyroclastic flows.
She told Express.co.uk: “There are indications that an eruption is imminent. Observations including earthquakes, inflation of the dome of the volcano, and gas emissions are used to determine the risk of and eruption.
“And then towns can be evacuated based on the frequency and severity of these markers, which has happened before for Fuego.
“But like other natural hazards, the exact size, timing and flow direction of a volcanic eruption is unknown.”
Fuego’s eruption was its most violent eruption in four decades and the last time the volcano erupted it took two and a half weeks for the volcano to return to normal.
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