Latest Chaitén Stories

Plinian volcanic eruptions are notoriously destructive. These very powerful eruptions often occur after long periods of quiescence and are preceded by relatively short periods of seismic restiveness. Volcanoes that tend to show this kind of behavior include Mount Vesuvius in Italy, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines and Mt. St. Helens in the USA. Professor Donald Dingwell of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, together with Professor Jonathan Castro of the University of Orléans...

Chile's Llaima volcano, 435 miles south of Chile's capital Santiago, began erupting again Friday night. The eruption shot ash 4 miles into the air that was then blown by the wind in the direction of Argentina provoking further evacuations.Llaima also blew on January 1, 2008, and has continued to blast rock and ash ever since then.State National Emergency Office ONEMI announced that a huge ash cloud was heading toward Argentina, expanding 62 miles southeast of the volcano."The volcano...

The Chaiten Volcano, which erupted in May for the first time in thousands of years, was said by Chile's government on Friday to still not be safe and that a decision regarding the future of the town of Chaiten would be made in the coming days, The volcano is forcing 7,000 residents to evacuate.  It is located only six miles from the town and started to spew ash, gas and molten rock on May 2.For weeks, constant eruptions were forcing a cloud of debris to keep aloft which soared as high as...

Southern Chile's Chaiten volcano has blanketed the entire area in a white cloud of ash that has reached as far away as Argentina.  Experts say the surprise eruption of the long dormant 3,280-foot Chaiten volcano, now in its seventh day, shows no signs of letting up and could go on for months.The ash has left some animals dead, disrupted flights from Argentina to the southern Patagonia region and caused the waters of a fjord that Chaiten sits on and a river to now appear white. The volcano...