Emergency evacuation as Chile volcano spews lava
Photo from the thread:
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
Good to see your posts...been awhile since we ...exchanged greetings.
Well,...I have some ancient videos somewhere that didn’t make it to Youtube,...
After being just one of the thousands in Yakima who had to get rid of tons of volcanic ash from Mt. St. Helens, I deeply sympathize with those people.
Those silly people who trade in their SUVs due to gas prices are going to be so peeved when their little econo cars don't go in the snow next winter...
Thanks Ernest! It sure has been awhile. That's a cool video. How did you find it?
Good informative article. No PC, good facts.
I suspect this one little volcano erupting emitted more particulate matter into the air than all of humanity in a year.
Well Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has some ‘splaining’ to do to Mr. Al Gore...
It was one of several items on Google News....had some difficulty getting the right combination to set up the link.,...
Thanks for the info.
Nice shot!
Chile will now have to pay to get more carbon credits.
Geology Picture of the Week, May 4-10, 2008: Impressive Ash Clouds from Chilean Volcano
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Just another day on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
There’s probably more carbon dioxide spewed out there in 5 minutes than all of us combined will emit in our entire lives. We must get the Goracle to go communicate with the volcanoe and convince it to stop.
Chile
Chaitén volcano
http://www.volcanolive.com/chaiten.html
42.833 S, 72.646 W
summit elevation 962 m
Caldera
Chaitén volcano is located in southern Chile, 10 km NE of the town of Chaitén on the Gulf of Corcovado. The volcano contains an obsidian lava dome in a 3.5 km wide caldera. The volcano is covered with snow, but does not contain a glacier. Two small lakes occupy the caldera floor on the west and north sides of the lava dome.
The volcano erupted on 2nd May 2008. Ash emissions reached a height of 20 km. More than 4000 people were evacuated from nearby villages and the town of Chaiten. This was the first historical eruption at the volcano. The previous dated eruption was over 9000 years ago.
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