. Earth Science News .
Chile volcano erupts; evacuation ordered

A huge cloud of ash spewed from the Chaiten volcano, some 1,300 km south of Santiago is seen from Chaiten, a town where only animals are left after authorities issued a maximum alert and order the evacuation of the area surrounding the volcano which erupted with lava and ash on May 6, 2008. An evacuation of Chaiten in southern Chile had been underway since May 2, after the volcano began erupting for the first time in recent memory, covering the town and surroundings deep in ash. Photo courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
Puerto Montt, Chile (AFP) May 6, 2008
A volcano in southern Chile erupted with renewed vigor Tuesday, raining ash and lava over its surroundings and forcing a total evacuation in a 30-kilometer (19-mile) radius, the National Emergency Office said.

Emergency sirens sounded in the coastal region 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) south of Santiago, after the Chaiten volcano blasted out ash and cinders and generated lava and pyroclastic flows, four days after it awoke from a 300-year slumber.

"A maximum alert has been decreed," Jorge Munoz, the head of the National Emergency Office (ONEMI), told AFP in Santiago after the volcano blew its top at 8:45am (1245 GMT).

A government vulcanologist warned that the eruption was only at the beginning stage and that an explosive eruption was possible.

"There could be a major explosion that could collapse the volcano's cone," said Luis Lara of the National Geologic and Mining Service.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet called for calm during the evacuation, which Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said affected a 30-kilometer (19 mile) radius.

"The volcano is exploding very strongly," Bachelet said.

Nearly 400 people from the surrounding area, including emergency workers and journalists, were put aboard two navy ships and other vessels and taken to safety.

People who refused to leave their homes were evacuated by force, a local radio said.

Only a contingency force of some 50 police and navy personnel were left in the town, the emergency office said.

Nearly all 4,000 residents of the coastal town of Chaiten, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the 1,000-meter (3,280-foot) volcano, were evacuated over the weekend after the volcano began erupting on Friday, after being inactive for more than 300 years.

The landscape was dominated by the huge column of smoke and ash flowing kilometers (miles) into the sky from the volcano, leaving the town's buildings and streets covered with a thick blanket of ash, television images showed.

A blanket of ash extended from the volcano southward for scores of kilometers, slowly burying everything under 30 centimeters (12 inches) of ash that was turning cement-hard when mixed with rainfall.

In Futaleufu, a town 70 kilometers south of Chaiten, its 1,800 inhabitants were either being evacuated or fleeing over the border with Argentina just 15 kilometers to the east, after the town was buried in ash from the eruption.

A Chilean air force rescue team was dispatched to the area from Puerto Montt, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north to send in new rescue teams.

"We are helping with the evacuation of Futaleufu," said a spokesman of the Argentine border police.

Carried by winds, the heavy ash from Chaiten was also raining down onto fields and valleys of Argentina, harming water supplies in the area.

Vulcanologist Lara said that the eruption could intensify.

"The conditions exist for something worse to happen," he said.

But he said the lava flows were not a big threat, because the lava is very dense.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Chilean volcano turns Chaiten into ghost town
Santiago (AFP) May 4, 2008
A volcano in southern Chile erupting for the first time has buried the surrounding region under a blanket of ash and has turned Chaiten into a ghost town, with its 4,000 residents facing an uncertain future.







  • Myanmar survivors emerge desperate for help
  • Indonesia landslide death toll rises to 19
  • Myanmar's generals shun US aid, see risk to political power
  • Myanmar cyclone death toll could top 100,000: US diplomat

  • Cleaner air to worsen droughts in Amazon: study
  • Australia needs years of heavy rainfall to crack drought: experts
  • California may face long-term drought
  • Global Warming Affects World's Largest Freshwater Lake

  • Cartosat 2a Puts The World In High Resolution For Indian Government
  • NASA Nasa Satellite Captures Image Of Cyclone Nargis Flooding In Myanmar
  • Ball Aerospace Wins NASA Earth Sensing Contracts
  • Weather Underground Launches Best Weather Map Available On The Internet

  • Analysis: Venezuela, China near oil deal
  • EU still far from agreeing biofuel standards: diplomats
  • Analysis: Reps. revisit ethanol policy
  • U.S. plans two large-scale CO2 projects

  • China urges authorities to step up education of deadly disease
  • Doctors punished in China for mishandling deadly virus outbreak: Xinhua
  • Cholera Study Provides Exciting New Way Of Looking At Infectious Disease
  • Beijing latest victim of China virus outbreak: state media

  • Tropical insects risk extinction with global warming: study
  • US authorities close campsites amid beetle fears
  • Asian vultures may face extinction in India, study warns
  • Dwarf Cloud Rat Rediscovered After 112 Years

  • Toxic ponds kill ducks in Canada
  • Researchers Look To Make Environmentally Friendly Plastics
  • Europe Spends Nearly Twice As Much As US On Nanotech Risk Research
  • Australian state to ban plastic bags

  • Walker's World: Bye-bye boomers
  • United We Stand: When Cooperation Butts Heads With Competition
  • Stonehenge excavation may alter history
  • Ancient Nutcracker Man Challenges Ideas On Evolution Of Human Diet

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement