Volcanoes In Southern Chile

This astonishing picture shows the Chaiten volcano erupting in the middle of the night during an electrical storm. (May 2008)

The volcano triggered earth tremors, and shot an ash cloud two miles into the sky.

Here, the ash plume reaches all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the entire continent of South America.

That is not snow behind these residents of the town of Chaiten, Chile. It is ash from the volcano that has blanketed everything in the region.

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In Chile, volcanoes are pretty much a fact of life, but this year they are making their presence felt in a big way. Chile has some 2000 volcanoes of which a large number of them are considered "active". Last year the Llaima volcano suddenly sprang to life and started to spew lava and ash into the sky, threatening nearby communities and generally disrupting normal life in the surrounding area. Llaima volcano is plainly visible from the front door of my Aunt's ranch in southern Chile's Lake Region. This year the volcano has again erupted threatening the area.

The pictures above are from the volcano near the southern town of Chaiten about a day's drive farther south from the Ranch. The Chaiten volcano suddenly erupted back on May 2, 2008. The last time this volcano erupted was back around 7400BC! It has since devastated the entire region and continues to do so keeping all the inhabitants of the town of Chaiten away from their homes for months since the Chilean government imposed a mandatory evacuation of the area. Some very good information on the Chaiten volcano and the surrounding area is available here: http://geology.com/events/chaiten-volcano/

I will be riding my motorcycle to the southern tip of South America this coming January and February (2009), and I will have to pass thru the area of the Chaiten volcano, or as close as the authorities will let me. I am very interested to see just how much impact the ash cloud has had on the area. This past February (2008) I was in the area surrounding the Llaima volcano and police and military had all roads leading to the base of the volcano blocked to all. I wanted to go to the Conguillio National Park, but was stopped about five miles from the area due to the activity of the Llaima volcano. We'll see what happens this year.