bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Reuters

Volcano Calbuco in southern Chile erupted for the first time in more than five decades on Wednesday, sending a thick plume of ash and smoke nearly 20km into the sky.
Chile’s Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the sudden eruption at around 6pm, which occurred about 1,000km south of Santiago, the capital, near the tourist town of Puerto Varas.
As night fell, about 4,000 people had so far moved out of the area, an evacuation radius of 20km had been established and classes had been cancelled in surrounding towns, authorities said.
President Michelle Bachelet was scheduled to travel to the affected area on Thursday.
There were 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.
Winds blowing northeast were pushing the column of ash and smoke towards Argentina.

Watch: Chile's Calbuco volcano spews ash and smoke high into the sky.
“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 200 to 300km/h.
LATAM Airlines said it had cancelled 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.
Trevor Moffat, who lives in Ensenada, some 10km from the volcano, said he and his family fled when the volcano erupted. The last major eruption of the 2,003-metre-tall Volcano Calbuco was in 1961.
“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,” Way added.
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.
In March, Volcano Villarrica, also in southern Chile, erupted, sending a plume of ash and lava high into the sky, but it quickly subsided.


Chile issues alert after volcano erupts for first time in 54 years

A high column of ash and lava spews from the Calbuco volcano in Chile on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

News

World