A volcano dormant for decades has erupted in south-central Chile, spewing ash to the height of 10 kilometres into the sky, and prompting the government to evacuate several thousand residents, authorities said.
Winds spread the ash towards neighbouring Argentina, darkening the sky in the ski resort city of San Carlos de Bariloche, a government official there said on Saturday, adding the city's airport had been closed.
Chile's Chaiten volcano erupted spectacularly in 2008 for the first time in thousands of years, spewing molten rock and a vast cloud of ash that reached the stratosphere. The ash also swelled a nearby river and ravaged a nearby town of the same name.
Chile's chain of about 2,000 volcanoes is the world's second largest after Indonesia. About 50 to 60 are on record as having erupted, and 500 are potentially active.
Dramatic bolts light up the Patagonian sky
A giant cloud of ash rises after the volcano's eruption
An aerial view shows the full scale of the cloud
Policemen gather as the smoke and ash cloud grows
Residents clean a car covered with ash in the Argentinian resort city of San Carlos de Bariloche, 100 miles to the east of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle chain
Argentinian workers use bulldozers to remove volcanic ash from the streets of San Carlos de Bariloche
People protect their faces from ash in Puerto Madryn on Argentina's Atlantic coast, almost 400 miles east of the Chilean volcano
Meanwhile back in Chile, a cowherd walks through the village of Rininahue against a dramatic backdrop of ash
Locals near Osorno city watch the seemingly endless cloud of smoke and ash rise into the sky
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment