Colombia-Golden Volcano
10-30-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
ON THE SUMMIT OF GALERAS VOLCANO, Colombia (AP) _ The Indians once called this volcano Mountain of Fire.
Now, after an American scientist announced last week that the volcano was spewing a pound of gold per day into the sky and that its crater was partly lined with gold, it might be tagged Gold Mountain.
But standing amid swirling mists on the summit of Colombia's most volatile volcano, Libaniel Casas sees no gold, only a dreaded vision of hordes of prospectors and adventurers on the slopes, finding death instead of riches.
Luckily, since Dr. Fraser Goff's study was reported Friday, there has been no sign that anyone has come to the mountain looking for gold. It has been closed off for several years for safety reasons.
Just in case, the military plans to double the guards at a roadblock partway up the slope and increase patrols to keep adventurers out.
If one pound of gold is being expelled into the air each day, as Goff asserts, the gold is of "molecular size," said Casas, who escorted an Associated Press news team up the mountain by jeep on Saturday. They were the first journalists allowed on Galeras in almost two years.
Casas is the director of the government's Galeras Volcano Observatory and the man responsible for the safety of the quarter-million people who live at the mountain's base. He knows well the lethal power of the volcano.
He stood beside a building that looked as though it had been hit by an artillery bombardment.
It was. The "artillery shells" were refrigerator-sized boulders the volcano blasted out of its crater on March 23, 1993.
That eruption sent rocks crashing into a brick and cement house while a half-dozen soldiers cowered inside. One boulder obliterated the front door and took out a large section of an adjacent wall.
The house, living quarters for soldiers guarding military communications towers on the summit, has since been abandooned.
Two months earlier, nine people - including six scientists - were killed on the volcano in another eruption.
Galeras is dangerous because it is prone to erupting without warning, unlike other volcanoes that rumble for a while before blowing up.
Casas said another vulcanologist, Maria Lucia Calvache, discounted Goff's reported assertion that he had found a gold vein last year. Calvache theorized that the gold Goff found probably had been carried there by an avalanche.
News of Goff's report was broadcast in Pasto, an agricultural city of 260,000 at the base of the 14,000-foot volcano. It mainly elicited derision, plus fear that some foolhardy people will endanger themselves looking for gold.
"It's a dangerous volcano. Boys could wind up going there and getting lost, falling into a crevasse," said Angela Maria Villota during an early morning stroll through a park in downtown Pasto.
The cloud-capped volcano loomed behind the cathedral. Adobe houses sat snugly on its lower slopes amid fields of wildflowers and palmetto-type frailejone plants. The only sounds were the twitterings of birds.
Luis Fernando Botina, an Indian heading out with his brother to tend their family's potato crop, stopped to consider the news of gold on the mountain his ancestors called Urcunina - Mountain of Fire.
He was distinctly uninterested. Wearing an old blue wool sweater and wool pants, Botina hoisted a hoe over a shoulder and set off on a more pressing matter: getting food on the table.
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
ON THE SUMMIT OF GALERAS VOLCANO, Colombia (AP) _ The Indians once called this volcano Mountain of Fire.
Now, after an American scientist announced last week that the volcano was spewing a pound of gold per day into the sky and that its crater was partly lined with gold, it might be tagged Gold Mountain.
But standing amid swirling mists on the summit of Colombia's most volatile volcano, Libaniel Casas sees no gold, only a dreaded vision of hordes of prospectors and adventurers on the slopes, finding death instead of riches.
Luckily, since Dr. Fraser Goff's study was reported Friday, there has been no sign that anyone has come to the mountain looking for gold. It has been closed off for several years for safety reasons.
Just in case, the military plans to double the guards at a roadblock partway up the slope and increase patrols to keep adventurers out.
If one pound of gold is being expelled into the air each day, as Goff asserts, the gold is of "molecular size," said Casas, who escorted an Associated Press news team up the mountain by jeep on Saturday. They were the first journalists allowed on Galeras in almost two years.
Casas is the director of the government's Galeras Volcano Observatory and the man responsible for the safety of the quarter-million people who live at the mountain's base. He knows well the lethal power of the volcano.
He stood beside a building that looked as though it had been hit by an artillery bombardment.
It was. The "artillery shells" were refrigerator-sized boulders the volcano blasted out of its crater on March 23, 1993.
That eruption sent rocks crashing into a brick and cement house while a half-dozen soldiers cowered inside. One boulder obliterated the front door and took out a large section of an adjacent wall.
The house, living quarters for soldiers guarding military communications towers on the summit, has since been abandooned.
Two months earlier, nine people - including six scientists - were killed on the volcano in another eruption.
Galeras is dangerous because it is prone to erupting without warning, unlike other volcanoes that rumble for a while before blowing up.
Casas said another vulcanologist, Maria Lucia Calvache, discounted Goff's reported assertion that he had found a gold vein last year. Calvache theorized that the gold Goff found probably had been carried there by an avalanche.
News of Goff's report was broadcast in Pasto, an agricultural city of 260,000 at the base of the 14,000-foot volcano. It mainly elicited derision, plus fear that some foolhardy people will endanger themselves looking for gold.
"It's a dangerous volcano. Boys could wind up going there and getting lost, falling into a crevasse," said Angela Maria Villota during an early morning stroll through a park in downtown Pasto.
The cloud-capped volcano loomed behind the cathedral. Adobe houses sat snugly on its lower slopes amid fields of wildflowers and palmetto-type frailejone plants. The only sounds were the twitterings of birds.
Luis Fernando Botina, an Indian heading out with his brother to tend their family's potato crop, stopped to consider the news of gold on the mountain his ancestors called Urcunina - Mountain of Fire.
He was distinctly uninterested. Wearing an old blue wool sweater and wool pants, Botina hoisted a hoe over a shoulder and set off on a more pressing matter: getting food on the table.
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