First eruption in 42 years results in huge ash cloud over mountainous area in south of country

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Calbuco volcano has erupted for the first time in 42 years, billowing a huge ash cloud over a sparsely populated, mountainous area in southern Chile.



Chile’s Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the sudden eruption at around 18.00 local time (21.00 GMT), which occurred about 1,000km (625 miles) south of Santiago, the capital, near the tourist towns of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt.

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An evacuation radius of 20km has been established, authorities said. As night fell, about 4,000 people had so far moved out of the area.

President Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to travel to the affected area on Thursday.

There are no reports of deaths, missing persons or injuries, interior minister Rodrigo Penailillo said. He urged residents to evacuate and warned of possible lahars, a mix of water and rock fragments that flow down a volcano’s slopes and river valleys.

“For us it was a surprise,” said Alejandro Verges, regional emergency director of the Los Lagos region, where the eruption took place. He said Calbuco was not under any special form of observation.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Smoke and lava spew from the Villarrica volcano on 22 April. Photograph: Reuters

Authorities said a large amount of ash had been observed, but no hot rocks or lava so far. Winds blowing northeast were pushing the column of ash and smoke toward Argentina.

Calbuco last erupted in 1972 and is considered one of the top three most potentially dangerous of Chile’s 90 active volcanoes.

“In this situation, with the eruption column so high, the main risk is that it collapses, falls due to gravity because of its own weight and causes a pyroclastic flow,” Gabriel Orozco, a vulcanologist with Chile’s geological and mining service, said on local TV.

A pyroclastic flow is a superheated current of gas and rock that can destroy nearly everything in its path and travel at speeds upwards of 200km to 300km per hour.

LATAM Airlines said it has canceled flights to and from neighbouring Puerto Montt, the area’s largest city, due to the presence of volcanic ash, which can potentially damage aircraft and make flying dangerous.

The education ministry canceled school in communities near the volcano.

Trevor Moffat, who lives in Ensenada, some 10km from the volcano, said he and his family fled when the volcano erupted. The 2,003m-tall Volcano Calbuco saw its last major eruption in 1961.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A view from Puerto Varas, southern Chile, of the eruption. Photograph: Giordana Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

“It sounded like a big tractor trailer passing by the road, rattling and shaking, guttural rumbling … We left everything there, grabbed my kid, my dog, got in the car with my wife,” Moffat said.

“All the neighbours were outside, a lot of young people crying. Armageddon type reaction,” said Canada-born Moffat, who was driving to nearby Puerto Varas.

Television pictures showed a spectacular mushroom-shaped column billowing into the sky with occasional lighting bolts shooting through. The eruption was seen in towns at least 50km away.

“There are a lot of people out in the streets, many heading to the gas stations to fill up on gas,” Derek Way, a resident of Puerto Varas, said. “A friend told me to fill everything we have with water.”

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Chile, on the Pacific “Rim of Fire,” has the second largest chain of volcanoes in the world after Indonesia, including around 500 that are potentially active.



Villarica, one of South America’s most active volcanos, erupted in southern Chile last month, spewing heavy smoke into the air as lava surged down its slopes and forcing authorities to evacuate thousands of people. The 9,000 foot (2,847m) volcano sits above the small city of Pucon. Tourists flock there for outdoor activities, including hiking around the volcano.



“This is clearly a much larger eruption than the one we saw with the Villarica some weeks ago and therefore we need to take bigger and faster measures,” interior and security minister Rodrigo Penailillo said.

He said that the government was sending water in case resources were contaminated by ash and that police and military officers had been deployed to ensure safety and help with evacuations.