COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA.

Mount Nevado del Ruiz.
Airmail. Tenth stamp in a set of 15, issued on 15.01.1954.
Face value: 80 cents of Colombian peso.
Design: Leslie Downey (1915-2001).
Printing: Recess.
Print: 500,000 copies.
Size: 30 x 35 mm.

Catalogues
- Leo Temprano No. 776.
- Michel No. 679.
- Scott No. C248.
- StampWorld No. 662.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 799.
- Yvert et Tellier No. PA 247.

The Nevado del Ruiz, also known as La Mesa de Herveo, with an altitude of 5,321 m (17,457 ft), is one of several stratovolcanoes within the Los Nevados National Natural Park, located in the center of the Colombian Andes, on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima, near the city of Manizales and about 130 km (80 miles) west of the city of Bogotá. It has been active for almost two million years, with three major eruptive periods. The current volcanic cone, covered in glaciers, began to form 150,000 years ago. The most recent eruptions occurred in 1984, 1985, 1991, 2012, and 2020; the eruption of November 13, 1985 caused more than 20,000 deaths in Armero and other towns. Between 1868 and 1869, German geologists Reiss and Stübel were the first to attempt to climb the Ruiz on a documented expedition, and in 1936, Cunet and Gansser were the first to do so successfully.