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Lessons from 40 years of communicating volcanic risk during crises

Since the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz eruption that killed over 23,000 people in Armero, Colombia, risk communication has become central to volcanic crisis management. Despite the development of effective tools and programmes for volcanic risk communication, considerable challenges remain.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank J. Lowenstern and M. Poland from the U.S. Geological Survey for their comments which helped to strengthen the manuscript.

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L.M. conceptualized and led the drafting of the manuscript. J.B., A.D., R.R., S.B., C.F., W.S. and B.M.N. helped to conceptualize the piece and helped to draft and edit the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lara Mani.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Mani, L., Barclay, J., Fearnley, C. et al. Lessons from 40 years of communicating volcanic risk during crises. Nat. Geosci. 18, 1077–1080 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01832-y

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