Lahars brings destruction
every year
Since the eruption of the Pinatubo
in 1991, the threat of lahars, has become bigger in this part of Luzon.
Lahars are huge mud flows,
with a mixture of water and volcanic rock fragments. They can occur
after an eruption together with heavy rainfall. They also can occur even
years later after heavy rainfall. The danger of lahars in the
Philippines is high in the period June - August.
It is the period that the typhoons come over the Philippines. They
always bring heavy rainfall. The ash deposits in the
region are then an easy prey to the heavy rainfall.
Lahars go faster
than you can run!
Since the eruption of the Pinatubo in 1991,
lahars have occurred during every rainy
season. The people is always forced to evacuate. The mud mass is some times knee-deep, some times 4-6
meter deep. Lahars come fast, sometimes tens of meters per second. Too fast
for an escape. They are as destructive as the lava flows are. Trees, houses and
arable land, all is destroyed or buried.
In the three months after the eruption in 1991
more
than 200 lahars destroyed roads and bridges, and buried farmland and towns with sediment.
Pictures
to the right: Courtesy of US Geological Survey,
University of Washington
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