VDAP Images: Huila, Colombia

Nevado del Huila is a large snow-and-ice-clad volcano with a history of generating large, exceedingly dangerous, debris flows (lahars) when it erupts. In 1994 the Huila region was the site of a M 6.4 earthquake that induced lahars and killed about 1000 people. These fatalities along with the 1985 Armero disaster at Nevado del Ruiz raised awareness of lahar hazards in the river valleys around Nevado del Huila. For more information about the earthquake and images, please see the VHP article Landslides and lahar at Nevado del Huila Volcano, Colombia.

In 2007 Nevado del Huila entered an eruptive phase. INGEOMINAS issued successful eruption forecasts and carried out evacuations at Huila for the April 2007 phreatic eruption and lahar and for the first magmatic eruption in November 2008. For more information, please see the Huila response page.

Click on the images below for the original photo.

  • Huila, February 2007

  • Dome growth on 10 November 2009

  • View to the NE on December 6, 2008. Steam is rising from a new lava dome and from a large fracture that cut through the glacier-clad volcano in early 2007.

  • Huila on 2 November 2009

  • View of Belalcázar after the November 20, 2008 lahar.