A volcano eruption in Colombia’s northern Pacific coast could be a similar experience to that seen in Mount Pinato, where a powerful eruption killed hundreds of people in 2006.
The volcano, which has not erupted since 1995, has been calving in the past several weeks, bringing heavy rains and landslides to areas.
“I’ll probably be back, it will be a much like Mount Sinabung,” volcano expert Luis Enrique Gonzalez, director of the National Institute for Geophysics, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
“We’ll be able to see the crater after a while.”
Gonzalez said he and other experts have predicted an eruption could occur by the end of April or May, but he said he is confident it will happen sometime this year.
He said there is no way to predict when, where or even how large the eruption would be, but added: “We will see.”
Giovanni D’Ambrosio, the volcano expert for the country’s National Institute of Geophysiology, said the eruption is unlikely to be violent.
“The danger is that the volcano will have a low volume and we will see the eruption of a small crater, a small column of ash, nothing much,” he said.
“The eruption of this volcano is very small.
It will be very slow, not a big event.”
The area where Mount Pinata erupted in 2006 was only 5,000 to 6,000 square miles (20,000-25,000 sq km), and it was located near the city of Cartagena in the countrys south.
In 2006, there was a small eruption in the area, but it was not felt.
There are about 40 active volcanoes in Colombia, and most are dormant.
Many are also located in the Andean region of the country.