The Colombian Geological Service (SGC) reported this Monday a possible eruption of volcanic origin in the Urabá region.in the department of Antioquia (northwest), which may be associated with a mud volcano.
Images circulated on social networks of the explosion show a large column of fire and smoke in a jungle area of San José de Mulatos, which is part of the municipality of Turbo (Antioquia).
The technical director of Geohazards of the SGC, John Makario Londoño, said in this regard that the videos are “related to a possible eruption of a mud volcano in the region of San José de Mulatos, in Urabá Antioquia” but clarified that the Geological Service is investigating what happened before confirming “whether it is an eruption or not”.
“It is very likely that it could be an eruption of many of the mud volcanoes that exist in this sector, and this type of eruptions are not strange” in that area where “there are other volcanoes such as San José de las Platas and La Lorenza”, which “have also made eruptions of this type”.
Londoño clarified that “this type of mud volcanoes are very different from volcanoes that erupt lava and magma, which are explosive and violent and can reach a very large area, affecting a large population and, in general, the ecosystem”.
Mud volcanoes “have very small, very restricted eruptions and most probably what is seen in these videos as an explosion is methane gas that ignites and explodes”.
According to the SGC, these volcanoes “are the product of mud diapirism, a phenomenon by which large quantities of clayey materials with plastic characteristics and high content of organic matter, water and gas were covered, from 60 million years ago onwards, by dense and thick layers of fluvial origin.”
Colombia is home to some of the largest mud volcanoes on the planet, including the Santa Fe de las Platas complex, in the municipality of Arboletes (Antioquia), which has a dome 8,000 meters in diameter”.
To the east of Santa Fe de las Platas is the Mulatos volcano, also among the largest volcanoes in the world.