New rumbling from Chilean volcano worries experts
Pastor Dale Morgan
New rumbling from Chilean volcano worries experts*
15 May 2008 21:11:50 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Monica Vargas
SANTIAGO, May 15 (Reuters) - Chile's Chaiten volcano groaned, rumbled
and shuddered on Thursday, raising new concerns among authorities, as
lightning bolts pierced the huge clouds of hot ash hovering ominously
above its crater.
Chile's National Emergency Office, ONEMI, said heavy ash kept shooting
from the volcano in southern Chile as it generated small tremors.
On the ground, heavy flooding hit the area around Chaiten as falling ash
swelled rivers, overflowing their banks.
"There's been additional volcanic activity that we're really worried
about," regional governor Sergio Galilea told reporters.
The Chaiten volcano, 760 miles (1,220 km) south of the capital Santiago,
started erupting on May 2 for the first time in thousands of years,
spewing ash, gas and molten rock into the air.
The government on Wednesday declared the town of Chaiten, only six miles
(10 km) from the erupting volcano, off-limits for three months and
reported that about 90 percent of the town had been flooded by the
Blanco and Raya Rivers.
"The flooding has receded in terms of water. But there's a lot of
material left, more mud than water," Galilea said.
Rains are normal during the southern hemispheric winter in Patagonia,
but the deluge of volcanic ash has caused nearby rivers to breach their
banks.
No deaths have resulted, but thousands of people have been evacuated
within a 30-mile (48-km) radius, including the 4,500 residents of Chaiten.
The column of ash above the volcano, kept aloft by the pressure of
constant eruptions, rose as high as 20 miles (32 km) early in the
eruption but has since fallen back to about 4.5 miles (7 km).
"The decision to evacuate was very opportune, as was the decision to
keep the zone clear for now," said chief government spokesman Francisco
Vidal after a meeting with President Michelle Bachelet on Thursday.