Colo (volcano)

The Colo is a volcano on the Indonesian island of Una Una. The comparatively low stratovolcano occupies a large part of the island and reaches a height of 507 m. Its caldera has a diameter of two kilometers. In it stands a small central cone. From Colo three eruptions are known. The latest up to in 1983 occurred and devastated almost the entire island of Una Una.

The outbreak of 1983

The eruption of Colo announced himself by a series of volcanic quakes from 9 July. A first eruption took place on July 19. As a result of a powerful eruption on July 21, devastated pyroclastic flows finally estimated 80 % of Una Una. The population had been evacuated by then, so no lives were lost. A smoke and ash plume rose to the stratosphere, reaching the neighboring Sulawesi. A British Airways plane on the way to Perth fell on 23 July in the volcanic cloud and then had to turn back to Singapore. By the end of August 1983 were made still more violent explosions at Colo, the last on the 26th of the month. Since then, the volcano is quiet again. Already in mid- August 1983 visited the volcanologist Maurice Krafft the island and documented the damage.