Military evacuated, Chile volcano eruption flares Posted on May 8th
military personnel from the vicinity of an erupting volcano in
its remote Patagonian region before dawn on Thursday, after it
spat a surge of fiery material.
But a few civilians refused to leave two villages near the
Chaiten volcano in southern Chile which began erupting last
week for the first time in thousands of years, a Reuters
witness said.
The military and a few journalists drove around 50 miles
south of the volcano to the village of Santa Lucia after
earth tremors and an electric storm at its peak around
midnight, a top regional government official said.
A strong smell of sulfur hung in the air around the village
of Chaiten, just 6 miles from the volcano in southern Chile.
“Army personnel have seen pyroclastic material, burning
material,” Miguel Munoz of the government’s National Emergency
Office told Reuters. “So the (remaining) civilian and army
personnel have been moved.”
However four civilians stayed back in Chaiten and 24 stayed
in the village of Santa Barbara 12 miles from the volcano, well
within a 30 mile evacuation radius, the Reuters witness said.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from the area, most
by boat or navy warship. From the north, remote Chaiten,
flanked by fjord, forest and river is only accessible by boat
or by air.
“What happened last night could be repeated as long as the
eruption cycle continues,” said Rodrigo Rojas, a senior
official at the National Emergency Office. “We haven’t
absolutely ruled it out.”
Chaiten volcano lies 760 miles south of the capital
Santiago and has showered ash on towns as far away as in
neighboring Argentina.
Cows in Chaiten nibbled at foliage caked with ash. Ash had
settled on their own backs, while on the ground it was
compacted in some areas and appeared hard, like cement.
The long dormant 3,280-foot (1,000-metre) Chaiten volcano
began erupting on Friday and the huge plume of volcanic ash is
clearly visible on satellite images cutting a swathe across
South America’s southern tip.
Experts say the volcano could continue belching out vast
clouds of ash for months and could rumble on for years.
Chile has the world’s second most active string of
volcanoes behind Indonesia. It is home to 2,000 volcanoes, 500
of which experts say are potentially active. Around 60 have
erupted over the past 450 years.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Medel in Santa Lucia;
writing by Simon Gardner; editing by Mohammad Zargham)