Authorities declared a yellow alert for the Machin volcano located in Colombia’s central Tolima department, following an increase in registered seismic activity in the area.
Colombia’s Institute of Geology and Mining (Ingeominas) registered 68 tremors over the weekend, one measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale and was felt by locals in the zone.
An erruption of the Machin volcano could potentially affect close to a million people in the departments of Tolima, Quindio, Valle del Cauca and Cundinamarca.
According to Ingeominas, Machin is one of the Colombia’s volcanoes that has the most propensity to affect widespread damage on the Andean nation. The volcano has a great potential to explode, due to its chemical composition, the magnitude of its erruptions and extensive deposits to feed those erruptions.
The Machin volcano’s geographical location means it has the potential to adversely affect an area important to Colombia’s economy.