Posted on 05/06/2008 8:59:56 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The long-dormant Chaiten volcano blasted ash some 20 miles (30 kilometers) into the Andean sky on Tuesday, forcing the last of thousands to evacuate and fouling a huge stretch of the South American continent.
A thick column of ash climbed into the stratosphere and blew eastward for hundreds of miles (kilometers) over Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean, closing schools and a regional airport. Chilean and Argentine citizens were advised to wear masks to avoid breathing the dangerous fallout.
Chilean officials ordered the total evacuation of Chaiten, a small provincial capital in an area of lakes and glacier-carved fjords just six miles (10 kilometers) from the roiling cloud.
Interior Minister Edmundo Perez said anyone still in the area should "urgently head to ships in the bay to be evacuated."
More than 4,000 people were evacuated over the weekend and 350 more headed out Tuesday.
Also emptied was the soot-coated border town of Futaleufu, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the volcano.
The five-day-old eruption is the first in 9,370 years, said Charles Stern, a volcanologist at the University of Colorado-Boulder who has studied Chaiten.
He said the nearby town could end up buried, much like the Roman city of Pompeii following Mount Vesuvius' eruption in 79 A.D. Volcanic material from Chaiten's last eruption measured up to 5 feet in places.
"What happens after today is anybody's guess," Stern said.
The gritty, gray-white blizzard of ash covered houses and roads. Some people chose to remain in Futaleufu, donning masks when they dared to leave their homes.
About a 1/2 inch (1 centimeter) of ash coated the Argentine tourist town of Esquel, a Patagonian resort favored by backpackers and skiers at the foot of the Andes, where the airport and schools have been closed since Saturday.
The fallout covered a third of Argentina's Minnesota-sized province of Chubut, provincial Gov. Mario Das Neves said.
While volcanologists around the world eagerly awaited data on the scope of the eruption, one local expert got an up-close look when he accompanied police and air force teams over the 3,950-foot (1,200 meter) peak.
Volcanologist Juan Cayupi told The Associated Press by telephone that Chaiten's two small craters have morphed into a large, single crater.
Lava was rising within the crater but has not yet spilled over, said Luis Lara, another volcanologist with the government's Geology and Mining Service.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who visited the area Monday, has pledged financial help for people who lose homes or livestock. Farmers left behind about 40,000 head of livestock, and officials expressed fear that many of them could die.
But the possibility of the Chaiten volcano affecting Earth's climate is probably fairly low, experts said.
So far, Chaiten has emitted only a few thousand tons of sulfur dioxide, "which is very small," said Simon Carn, a University of Maryland-Baltimore volcanologist who uses satellites to measure volcanic gases.
In general, a volcano must spew at least 1 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to have a global effect on climate, said Alan Robock, a Rutgers University professor who co-authored a book on the subject.
After eruptions of unusual size, sulfur dioxide, converted into sulfuric acid, can form a thin white cloud in the atmosphere that reflects sunlight away from Earth.
The Philippines' Mount Pinatubo produced a brief cooling of the climate after spewing 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide in 1991.
But Robock said this volcano is so close to the South Pole that any cooling would likely be limited to the Southern Hemisphere.
Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this
Excellent Video.
I’ll resist the urge to quip about the Texas chili-cookoff and just say a prayer for those nearby.
That’ll take care of your Global Warming right there.
Paging Al oGre! Paging Al oGre! Global warming causes volcanos, right? Please step up and make a stoopid comment Al.
“o·gre Audio Help [oh-ger] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a monster in fairy tales and popular legend, usually represented as a hideous giant who feeds on human flesh.
2. a monstrously ugly, cruel, or barbarous person.”
algore is not going to like this if it cools the earth. He will suddenly be stuck with a pocket full of useless carbon credits...
Did the Video Link work for you?
20 miles high is really getting up there.
He’ll just ignore the event!
The video worked for me. I don’t think it reached the 20 mile height level before the video ended but it sure looked like it easily would have.
Women and children hurt most.
Minorities hurt moster.
Al Gore predicted this would happen.
Buy your carbon offsets to offset the volcano.
Volcano eruption caused by global warming.
Volcano causes global cooling, causing more climate change.
Bush's fault.
That’s going to make for some beautiful sunsets.
Earthquake Ping List. If you would like to have your name
added to this list or removed from it, please FReepmail me.
Massive volcanic dust + no sunspots = Bitter cold winter 2008-2009
The global warming hoax liberals will step up the lie that this is all part of global warming caused by man.
Where have you been?
what is the chance of the caldera collapsing?
Texas?
Chili-cookoff?
Texas=Bush
Chili=beans
Texas/chili = Bush/beans
BUSH'S FAULT
Hi Karl! I've been busy with a bunch of real-life stuff. How've you been? :-)
Thanks for the ping, Ernest!
No Idea....they’ll tell us if it happens I’m sure.
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