There have been no dramatic changes in the status of Chaitén volcano since yesterday. Chilean government emergencies office ONEMI reports (quoting SERNAGEOMIN) in its latest bulletin that ‘the activity of Chaitén volcano maintains the same eruptive phase, with continuous emissions producing a column that rises to 8000 metres altitude, with the plume of ash and gases flowing to the east-northeast’. In earlier bulletins today, ONEMI reported on the progress of the evacuation and relief operations, and noted that the Argentine Army’s 9th Mechanized Brigade has delivered fuel and water to the Chilean town of Futaleufú. Indeed, Argentine-Chilean co-operation in dealing with the Chaitén appears to be working well at all levels from the two nations’ respective presidents down to the emergency committees in the localities. ONEMI also reports that the Chilean Government has armed itself with the legal powers necessary to compel reluctant locals to evacuate the danger area around Chaitén.

The Argentine newspaper Clarin reports on the spread of Chaitén’s ash across Argentina: ‘One week after Chaitén began to erupt, the ash cloud has spread into seven provinces: Chubut, Río Negro, Neuquén, La Pampa, Mendoza, San Luis, Buenos Aires and also Capital Federal [district]‘. The paper quotes Servicio Metereológico Nacional reports that ‘The cloud of ash … will be more dense in the regions near the volcano, particularly in central and northern Chubut and southern Río Negro, where the [ash] particles remain suspended in low and middle levels of the atmosphere. Meanwhile, in the province of Buenos Aires, Capital Federal, Neuquén, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Luis the ash will remain in middle and upper levels of the atmosphere, ensuring that will not cause adverse effects on the population’. The ash started to become evident in the city of Buenos Aires yesterday, says a report from Reuters América Latina: ‘Ashes from the Chilean volcano Chaitén, which has intensified its activity in the last few days, have arrived in Buenos Aires, albeit in limited quantities, reported the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional on Thursday. Some Andean cities of Patagonia have been covered with ash for several days’.

The eruption cloud has slowly made its way north into central Chile, reports 123 Chile, and will reach the capital Santiago at the weekend: ‘University of Chile geophysicists have predicted that the [Chaitén] ash cloud will reach Santiago this weekend - specifically on Sunday’. However, ‘the volcanic cloud will be “barely” detectable by Santiaguinos this weekend’ because of its dispersed condition and elevation - ten thousand metres. An article in El Mercurio also observes that the cloud will be too high to impinge upon the lives of the capital’s residents.

The area of southern Chile in which Chaitén is located is isolated and has suffered from under-investment in transport and communications infrastructure, according to a lengthy report from Reuters América Latina, and the eruption has increased the sense among many local inhabitants and their political representatives that the government in far-off Santiago is not interested in their problems. The Government is, however, keen to attract tourism to the region, and the irony is that the very features that attract tourists to southern Chile - the landscape of fjords, islands and mountains - help to isolate the region and have added to the difficulties of evacuation. In the case of Futaleufú in the province of Palena, the local population had to be evacuated to other Chilean cities via Argentine territory because of the poor communications on the Chilean side of the border. ‘We are a province, a region that is complete in a condition of isolation’ complains a parliamentarian representing a district in the southern region of Aysén, to which many of the evacuees have been taken. From the government’s point of view the civil engineering challenges represented by this region of mountains and fjords make investment in road construction a very expensive issue; moreover, ‘environmental organizations have demonstrated their opposition to certain work in connection with the extension of the Southern Highway, and argue that [such works] have an adverse environmental impact and encourage inappropriate private sector investment which harms the natural environment’.

For all our Chaitén coverage: Chaitén << The Volcanism Blog

Information
Global Volcanism Program: Chaitén - summary information for Chaitén (1508-41)
ONEMI, Oficina Nacional de Emergencia - Chilean government emergencies office (Spanish)
SERNAGEOMIN - volcanology information from the Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Chile (Spanish)
Ministerio del Interior - Chilean Interior Ministry; archive of news articles is here

News
La nube de cenizas del Chaitén se esparce por siete provincias - Clarin.com (Argentina), 9 May 2008 (Spanish)
Cenizas del Chaitén podrían llegar a Santiago - 123 Chile, 9 May 2008 (Spanish)
Expertos afirmaron que nube de cenizas del Chaitén podría llegar a Santiago - El Mercurio, 9 May 2008 (Spanish)
Cenizas de volcán chileno llegan a capital argentina - Reuters América Latina, 8 May 2008 (Spanish)
Erupción Chaitén pone en escena aislamiento en el sur de Chile - Reuters América Latina, 8 May 2008 (Spanish)