Largest lahar in 5 years at Ubinas volcano, Peru
Image credit: Ingemmet
A damaging lahar was produced by heavy rain falling over Ubinas volcano on February 6, 2019. The first signal was recorded at 15:10 local time in the region of Moquegua.
This is the third lahar so far in 2019 and the largest since 2014, Ingemmet volcanologist Domingo Ramos said, adding that the event lasted for more than 1 hour.
While there were no casualties reported, the material damage is substantial, he said.
The lahar has blocked one of the local roads, isolating many villages. In addition, power poles were destroyed, cutting off power to 80% of the villages in the Ubinas Valley
Agricultural fields were also affected, Ramos said.
Images courtesy Ingemmet
Image courtesy Adan Castro
Thanks to IGP's surveillance network, Moquegua authorities were alerted and the population informed through a mobile application.
On February 7, the agency installed new monitoring equipment which will allow them better to monitoring and alerting.
Ingemmet said more lahars are expected on days with such heavy rain and asked residents to avoid approaching the riverbeds.
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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