What appears to be an enormous ash cloud rising from the eruption of a long dormant volcano named Puyehuein southern Chile on June 4, 2011, isn’t quite matching up with the location of the recorded earthquakes today in the immediate area.
“The Cordon Caulle (volcanic range) has entered an eruptive process, with an explosion resulting in a 10-kilometer-high gas column,” Chilean state emergency office said.
The thing is, for some unknown reason, as of this writing, eight earthquakes near magnitude 5 have shook the earth near the Puyehue volcano. The problem is, the earthquakes are located 20 to 40 miles away from the eruption! Very Strange Indeed. (Strange because one would think that the earthquakes associated with a given erupting volcano would be very close to the volcano itself. Instead, these strong quakes are apparently tectonic.)
There’s something brewing or interacting quite a distance from the eruption, but is quite obviously directly related. We’re talking about enormous energies here.
In addition, apparently the volcano itself has not erupted from it’s old caldera. Instead, it has ripped a huge gash into the surface of the earth 6 miles long by 3 miles wide, 2.5 miles away! Amazing.
Thousands of people are being evacuated from the area, which is located about 60 miles northwest of San Carlos. The region was deeply shaken by a pair of very strong earthquakes during 2010, a magnitude 7.1 and a very large magnitude 8.8 quake, all located along the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Chile’s chain of about 2,000 volcanoes is the world’s second largest after Indonesia. Some 50 to 60 are on record as having erupted, and 500 are potentially active.
Video of Puyehue Volcano Eruption
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ulakwwtoUg[/youtube]
credit: guardian.co.uk
credit: guardian.co.uk
The ash plume has now reached Argentina.
The eruption apparently extends to the Caulle Mountain Range, an adjacent volcanic fissure.
credit: NASA’s Aqua Satellite
Currently, Puyehue has an eruption rating of VEI-3 (Volcanic Explosivity Index). The last time that this volcano blew it’s top with a VEI-3 was during 1929, when it erupted for 3 months between December and February. How coincidental is it that it occurred during the ‘Great Depression’. Did you know that home values now during 2011 have dropped lower than during the Great Depression (about 31%), but we’re supposedly not in a depression? But I digress…
Lightning and Ash Plume of Puyehue eruption, Chile
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ-sP0ihzbw[/youtube]
Infrared Satellite Loop of Puyehue Volcano Ash Plume
NASA visible color satellite image of Puyehue Volcano Plume
Ash cloud reaches Buenos Aires city at 5,000 metres height; all flights cancelled
Merco Press: Local airlines confirmed cancelled all flights until further notice at the international airport of Ezeiza and at the domestic-flights metropolitan Aeroparque. International airlines Delta, American, GOL, TAM and United Airlines suspended their services for Tuesday and Wednesday to Atlanta, Miami, Santiago de Chile, Río de Janeiro and San Francisco, respectively.
Regarding the earthquakes that had strangely occurred 20 to 40 miles away from Puyehue with the eruption, no further quakes in that particular region since then. Will keep watching…
The Nilhue River is steaming hot, nearby the Puyehue Volcano.
Update, 11-June-2011
Last night, strong winds had carried the main part of the ash cloud towards New Zealand. “We are expecting all of New Zealand to be covered by that cloud” said Andrew Tupper, head of the Bureau of Meteorology’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Darwin.
“The cloud should progress along the length of the South Island, and over the North Island.” Ash from the Puyehue volcano in southern Chile forced airlines in South America to curtail flights last week and Qantas last night said it had cancelled flights to and from New Zealand’s South Island and one flight from Hobart to Melbourne.
Update, 12-June-2011
From Professor Richard Arculus, a professor of Geology at the research school of earth sciences at the Australian National University, regarding the ash cloud, “Certainly if you look at the Bureau of Meteorology volcanic advisory centers alert, you can see the ash coming. It has come all the way around the Atlantic and across the Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean and is almost going to do a loop on itself.”
As many as 30,000 passengers were left stranded overnight when the ash cloud from a Chilean volcano moved into Australian airspace.
The ash cloud was drifting east at 50 knots, at an altitude between 20,000 feet and 35,000 feet, an altitude where passenger jets typically fly.
The cloud stretched in a broad patch south of the width of Australia, covering southern Victoria and the Tasman Sea towards New Zealand, according to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Darwin.
Airlines won’t fly planes through volcanic ash clouds as the fine soot particles can clog aircraft engines, a significant risk to aircraft and passenger safety.
Image of Puyehue Volcano Fissure Eruption from airplane
24-June-2011
Chile Volcano Still Erupting
Puyehue Volcano Plume (Chile), Terra Satellite Image
Climate Cooling Possible Following Chilean Volcano Eruption
If sulphur dioxide(SO2) in the plumes mixed with water it could cause some climate cooling in the next two months. “It is like putting a curtain around the hemisphere, which reflects the sunlight, and cools the air [below the ash].”
Why post about volcanic eruptions like this one on a ‘survival’ site?
Answer: To illustrate how we become complacent. This volcano has been inactive for decades, and then suddenly, ka-boom. We must realize that we are just tiny specs of life living on top of a thin crust of shifting solid earth, and at the mercy of mother nature. It’s always stunning to observe the power that lies beneath our feet.
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