The Nevado del Huila volcano in south west Colombia remains unsettled. Researchers announced on Wednesday that they have recorded 1,004 seismic tremors over the past week.
The Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining claimed that they are closely monitoring the evolution of the volcano’s activity, reported news site Terra on Wednesday.
On October 16, authorities ordered high ‘orange’ alert across the region surrounding the volcano, meaning that a full scale eruption could occur within days. This orange alert level remains in place on Wednesday.
Between October 21 and 27 the Institute recorded some 1,004 seismic events, which included 119 related to fracturing rock and 847 related to lava flow within the volcano body.
The ash ejected by the volcano has affected 17 settlements in the Cauca, Valle and Huila departments.
Nevado del Huila has erupted several times over the past few months and though the eruptions have damaged roads and bridges there have been no recorded casualties.
The summit, at a height of 5,364m above sea level, is the highest in Colombia’s Andean Central Cordillera and its crater is capped by ice.
In June 1994 the volcano erupted, causing the river Paez to flood. The flood killed some 1,100 indigenous Indians who were living in the area.