‘Chaitén has no possibility of recovery’ – Chilean Interior Minister 21 February 2009
Posted by admin in Chaitén, Chile, eruptions, natural hazards.Tags: Chaitén, Chile, natural hazards, South America, volcanic eruptions
comments closed
Following the dome collapse of 19 February, the Chilean Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma has restated what all but a very few already knew to be the case, that Chaitén has no viability and that abandoning the town is the only practicable and safe course of action. His statement has been released through the Chilean national emergencies office, ONEMI.
The Minister pointed out that ‘the collapse of the dome of the volcano would trigger the fall of 30 million tonnes of material which would be displaced into the valley’ and emphatically stated that ‘the situation of Chaitén today is much more dangerous and much worse than on the day after the eruption of last year’. As for the people who insist on remaining in the area, he said, ‘they should understand that ‘they will be in great danger. Chaitén has no possibility of recovery. It was discussed in the past, but not any more. Chaitén has no viability economically, or in security, or in health, or in any way. Chaitén has sadly died’.
When asked if the Chilean government was looking for means of forcing people to leave Chaitén, the minister said that ‘we cannot carry on with people who, either through obstinacy or ignorance, continue to defy such challenging problems as those we face. We will not use any coercion or force anyone to go. The people are big enough, they know what to do. We have asked a thousand times that they leave there. If they stay they do so at their own risk’. He also pointed out that the people remaining in Chaitén were putting the lives of others at risk, not only police and other public officials but also their own children: ‘Regarding the situation of the children, he said ‘we want people to understand once and for all that they are risking their own lives, but they are also risking the lives of their children’. He said that three children were known to be still in Chaitén.
For all our Chaitén coverage: Chaitén « The Volcanism Blog.
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Chaitén – summary information for Chaitén (1508-41)
SERNAGEOMIN – Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (Spanish)
Erupción del Volcán Chaitén – extensive coverage of the Chaitén eruption
Chaitén update, 20 February 2009 20 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Chaitén, Chile, eruptions, volcano monitoring.Tags: Chaitén, Chile, South America, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions, volcano monitoring
comments closed
SERNAGEOMIN have a new and very lengthy Chaitén update available on their website: 20.02.2009 Sernageomin Informa sobre el Volcán Chaitén. Translation as follows (first part only below – click on ‘more’ to read the whole thing).
[N.B. BBC News have a short video from the overflight referred to in this report, available here.]
20.02.2009 SERNAGEOMIN report on Chaitén Volcano
Until approximately 10:28 yesterday the seismic activity had remained essentially similar to that registered on preceding days. From 10:28 a small swarm of earthquakes began of HB type, associated with a slightly energetic background tremor, which was related to the collapse of a significant sector of the southern slopes of the domes, lateral explosions and block-and-ash flows and pyroclastic flows, all directed towards the south, which reached the upper part of the valley of the Chaitén river up to 5km north of the city of the same name. In addition, it generated eruption columns which, around 14:00, reached approximately 8km in altitude, with a dispersal plume directed to the south-east, precipitating ash towards the town of Futaleufú.
In several previous reports the certain possibility of an occurrence of such collapses of the domes towards the south, with lateral explosions and the generation of block-and-ash flows and pyroclastic flows, has been highlighted. In accordance with the preceding, we reiterate what was stated in the special report issued yesterday, in the sense that it is not possible to rule out the occurrence of new collapses, lateral explosions and the generation of large pyroclastic flows that could affect the town of Chaitén and also towards other sectors of the volcano, in addition to the dispersal of ash which will affect areas situated, principally, in the south-east and north and south.
New eruption at Galeras 20 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Colombia, eruptions, Galeras.Tags: Colombia, Galeras, South America, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
comments closed
A new explosive eruption is being reported at Galeras volcano in Colombia, and INGEOMINAS has raised the alert level to Red (I), the highest level. The eruption took place at 07:05 local time (12:05 GMT). The latest bulletin from the Pasto observatory, issued at 07:10 today, is short and to the point:
The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Pasto reports that on 20 February 2009 at 7:05am a new eruption of explosive character was recorded.
Therefore, the current level of activity at the volcano is changed to Red (I) (eruption imminent or under way).
In the news, Semana reports that areas of western Pasto and adjoining rural districts are threatened by the eruption, and that the authorities have begun evacuating people from those localities to the shelters. An AFP report quotes Luz Amanda Pulido, director of the government emergencies office, as confirming that ‘there is no official report of the loss of human lives’; she also says that rockfalls and ashfall have been reported in the area, that the emergency services have been deployed, and (rather pointedly) that the red alert means evacuations. Last week, the evacuation order was not heeded, and Ms Pulido clearly wants people to take it seriously this time. Antonio Navarro Wolf, governor of Nariño province, is quoted in El Universal as saying that the eruption today was a lesser event than that of last Saturday, although it is not clear what his evidence is for this. The governor also asked the local population to attend to the alert and co-operate with the evacuation order.
For all our Galeras coverage: Galeras « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Alerta roja por erupción del volcán Galeras – Semana, 20 February 2009
Nueva erupción del volcán Galeras en frontera de Colombia y Ecuador – AFP, 20 February 2009
Alerta por nueva erupción del Volcán Galeras, la segunda en menos de una semana – El Universal, 20 February 2009
South Colombia volcano erupts again – Colombia Reports, 20 February 2009
Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program – summary information for Galeras (1501-08=)
Portal Corporativo de INGEOMINAS – Instituto Colombiano de Geología y Minería
Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Pasto – Pasto volcanological observatory main page
Chaitén update, 19 February 2009 20 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Chaitén, Chile, eruptions.Tags: Chaitén, Chile, South America, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
comments closed
SERNAGEOMIN have issued a special bulletin reporting on the events of today at Chaitén. Translation as follows.
19.02.2009 Eruption of Chaitén Volcano – Special Bulletin
The absence of significant changes in the seismic monitoring record indicates that the process of generating the pyroclastic flows occurred at the level of the dome. The trigger mechanism for the flows could correspond to collapses of Dome 2 or explosions occurring within it. Both processes have been identified as events with the potential to occur in previous bulletins.
In consideration of the current course of the volcano’s eruptive activity, the occurrence of large flows that may affect the town of Chaitén cannot be ruled out at this stage.
Visual monitoring
According to information provided by telephone from Chaitén, by Captain Alejandro Villablanca of the Carabineros, at approximately 11:00 there was an explosion with ash emission at Chaitén volcano. This was recorded by the DGAC camera from the airfield at Chaitén and by Mr Dagoberto Guzmán. The photographic record shows that the pyroclastic flows descended the river valley in the direction of Chaitén. Moreover, the administrator of Pumalín Park reported that an ash cloud descended via the río Blanco, approximately 5km, towards Chaitén.
Photograph 1. View of pyroclastic flow from the DGAC camera at Chaitén.
Photograph 2. Photograph of pyroclastic flow along the río Chaitén, provided by Mr Dagoberto Guzmán and taken from the White Bridge at Chaitén.
Seismic activity
The record of seismic activity indicates that similar behaviour to that of recent weeks has been maintained. However, from 10:28, a change was observed with increasing amplitude (energy) of the background signal and generation of energetic tremor.
SERNAGEOMIN maintains continuous monitoring of seismic activity and Volcanic Red Alert.
Seismic records
Preceding hours, seismicity similar and comparable to that reported in previous bulletins.
09:20-10:02 – no seismic anomaly
10:02 – 1 earthquake comparable to those of preceding days
10:02-10:28 – no seismic anomaly
10:28 – increase in the amplitude (energy) of the background signal (tremor)
10:28-11:00 – energetic tremor
11:00-11:50 – energetic tremor and 8-9 earthquakes of magnitude comparable to those of preceding days
11:50-12:40 – tremor less energetic than previously, and 2-3 earthquakes similar to those of preceding days
Fig. 3. Seismogram in GMT, for local time subtract 3 hours. At around 10:28 there was an increase in tremor and the numbers of earthquakes.
[End of SERNAGEOMIN bulletin.]
For all our Chaitén coverage: Chaitén « The Volcanism Blog.
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Chaitén – summary information for Chaitén (1508-41)
SERNAGEOMIN – Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (Spanish)
Erupción del Volcán Chaitén – extensive coverage of the Chaitén eruption
Chaitén webcam images 20 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Chaitén, Chile, eruptions, volcano monitoring.Tags: Chaitén, Chile, South America, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions, volcano monitoring
comments closed
The DGAC webcams at Chaitén airfield are well known to Chaitén volcano watchers, but there is another webcam at Chaitén operated by Chilean television station Tele13. A direct link is here, and a link enabling the webcam feed to open in your default media player is here (thanks to Hawkeye for the latter).
This camera allows you to watch events in Chaitén live. It is under the control of an operator, and zooms in and out from time to time. It is currently showing the dome steaming, and there have been a number of small explosions and debris flows in the last couple of hours. The following four screen captures were taken between 20:30 and 20:50 local time this evening.
Above: Close-up of the dome. The towering spine referred to in the SERNAGEOMIN bulletin of 11 February 2009 is clearly still in place – there it is, looming up at the back.
Above: A slightly wider view of the dome area, with steam and gas emissions from the dome complex and a reddish haze in front, left by the debris flows that have rolled through the valley running south from the caldera.
Above: Chaitén town in shadow.
Above: Chaitén town in the evening sunlight.
For all our Chaitén coverage: Chaitén « The Volcanism Blog.
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Chaitén – summary information for Chaitén (1508-41)
SERNAGEOMIN – Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (Spanish)
Erupción del Volcán Chaitén – extensive coverage of the Chaitén eruption
Chaitén – major dome collapse 19 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Chaitén, Chile, eruptions.Tags: Chaitén, Chile, South America, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
comments closed
Here’s the latest bulletin from the Chilean emergencies office ONEMI on the dramatic events at Chaitén today:
19/02/09 – Overflight at Chaitén volcano
At 15:20 an overflight was carried out at Chaitén volcano, revealing a fracture of more than a kilometre on the dome, southern sector, with evident signs of collapse, which constitutes, in the opinion of the Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, SERNAGEOMIN, an important threat to the town [of Chaitén].
Large emissions of gases and pyroclasts were observed. Heavy rains over the volcano could generate substantial floods, causing further damage in the town of Chaitén.
The ONEMI bulletin adds that ‘SERNAGEOMIN experts taking part in this mission, along with ONEMI personnel, have been categorical in saying that no-one should stay in Chaitén’.
There seems little doubt that what occurred today was a major partial dome collapse, generating pyroclastic flows that penetrated a long way south along the Chaitén river valley, almost reaching the town itself. A collapse such as this is a process rather than an event, and further collapses of the structure of the dome(s), along with the release of overpressurized gases, is continuing to generate further debris flows along the length of the valley. Hence the continuing danger to the town of Chaitén referred to by ONEMI in the bulletin above.
For images of the events of today, click on ‘more’ below (20 images total).
SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 11 February 2009 – 17 February 2009 19 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, Arenal, Asama, Caribbean, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dukono, eruptions, Galeras, Guatemala, Hawaii, Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Karymsky, Kilauea, Papua New Guinea, Popocatépetl, Rabaul, Redoubt, Russia, Sakura-jima, Santa María, Shiveluch, Soufrière Hills, Tungurahua, Ubinas, United States, Weekly Volcanic Activity Reports.Tags: Global Volcanism Program, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
comments closed
The Smithsonian Institution/United States Geological Survey Weekly Volcanic Activity Report covering 11 February 2009 to 17 February 2009 is now available on the Global Volcanism Program website. The following is a summary and not a substitute for the full report.
- The current report: Weekly Volcanic Activity Report.
- Previous reports: Weekly Reports Archive.
- The SI/USGS map of volcanoes discussed this week.
New activity: Asama (Japan), Ebeko (Kuril Islands, Russia), Galeras (Colombia), Redoubt (Alaska, USA).
Ongoing activity: Arenal (Costa Rica), Dukono (Halmahera, Indonesia), Karymsky (Kamchatka, Russia), Kilauea (Hawaii, USA), Popocatépetl (Mexico), Rabaul (Papua New Guinea), Sakura-jima (Japan), Santa María (Guatemala), Shishaldin (Alaska, USA), Shiveluch (Kamchatka, Russia), Soufrière Hills (Montserrat), Tungurahua (Ecuador), Ubinas (Peru).
Resurgence at Chaitén 19 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Chaitén, Chile, eruptions.Tags: Chaitén, Chile, South America, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
comments closed
There was a major reactivation of the eruption at Chaitén volcano this morning. Everyone still in the town of Chaitén was evacuated, and the authorities have activated their various emergency plans. This was the picture captured by the north-facing camera at Chaitén airfield at 11:44…
The page for the Chaitén cameras is best accessed via the main DGAC airfield webcam page (warning, it’s rather cranky today). There’s also a live camera feed here – thanks to reader Brian Owens for the reminder. And Dr Erik Klemetti is also covering this event over at the Eruptions blog – check out what he has to say here.
An Associated Press report quotes Presidential Delegate Paula Narváez as saying that the volcano’s dome has been rocked by a major explosion, sending debris down the volcano’s slopes and threatening to block a river with debris and cause flooding. The Patagonia Times reports that the eruption began at around 11:30 and quotes an El Mercurio report that a partial dome collapse took place. About 140-160 people have been evacuated from Chaitén town.
Reuters has further details, quoting Deputy Interior Minister Patricio Rosende: ‘There has been a significant resumption of activity of Chaiten volcano. Our security team have observed an increase in the size of a column of ash and smoke, with a deformation to one side’. An unnamed ONEMI official expresses the exasperation many in Chile must feel at the fact that some Chaitén diehards insisted on defying the government and the emergency services and returning to their homes: ‘We have repeatedly said that there is a red alert and that people should not be there, and if that had been respected, then police would not be evacuating people’.
More on this, and more pictures, as things develop.
For all our Chaitén coverage: Chaitén « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Chaiten volcano erupts again in southern Chile – Associated Press, 19 February 2009
New eruption for Chile’s Chaiten – Patagonia Times, 19 February 2009
Chile’s Chaiten volcano spewing ash again – Reuters, 19 February 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Chaitén – summary information for Chaitén (1508-41)
SERNAGEOMIN – Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (Spanish)
Erupción del Volcán Chaitén – extensive coverage of the Chaitén eruption
‘Reactivation’ at Chaitén 19 February 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Chaitén, Chile, eruptions.Tags: Chaitén, Chile, South America, volcanic activity reports
comments closed
The Chilean national emergencies office, ONEMI, is reporting ‘a reactivation of the eruptive process’ at Chaitén volcano today at around 11:00 local time. Evacuation of the remaining residents of the town is under way. ONEMI reports the eruption of a considerable column of ash.
A good friend of The Volcanism Blog reports from nearby Futaleufú that at 1pm local time today ‘Futa is engulfed in total darkness with a fine layer of ash falling’.
And the Chaitén airfield webcam has chosen today to go offline … UPDATE, finally getting some images through which I hope to post shortly. There’s also a lot of coverage in the Chilean media which I will take a look at when I have a moment.
More on this event when we have it.
For all our Chaitén coverage: Chaitén « The Volcanism Blog.
The Daily Volcano Quote: Charles Darwin and ‘the grandeur of the one motive power’ 18 February 2009
Posted by admin in daily volcano quote.Tags: Charles Darwin, daily volcano quote, quotations, quotes
comments closed
With these views, if we look at a map of America, and observe the continuity of the great chain of the Andes, and its lesser parallel ones, in which from lat. 55° 40′ South to 60° North, a space of little less than 7000 miles, the volcanic forces either now are, or recently have been, in action,—and likewise the symmetry of the whole,—we shall be deeply impressed with the grandeur of the one motive power, which, causing the elevation of the continent, has produced, as secondary effects, mountain-chains and volcanos. The same reasons which led me to the conviction, that the train of connected volcanos in Chile and the recently uplifted coast, together more than 800 geographical miles in length, rested on a sheet of fluid matter, are applicable with nearly equal force to the areas beneath the other trains. We see that these areas are connected by one uniform chain of mountains, from many distant points of which fluid rock is yearly ejected; and as there are proofs that nearly the whole west coast of South America has been elevated within a period geologically modern, and that this movement, in some parts at least, has extended across the continent,—keeping, also, in mind the probability, that during periods of increased subterranean action, such as those indicated in the foregoing tables, the whole western part of the continent has been almost simultaneously affected, it appears to me, that there is little hazard in assuming, that this large portion of the earth’s crust floats in a like manner on a sea of molten rock. Moreover,—when we think of the increasing temperature of the strata, as we penetrate downwards in all parts of the world, and of the certainty that every portion of the surface rests on rocks which have once been liquefied;—when we consider the multitude of points from which fluid rock is annually emitted, and the still greater number of points from which it has been emitted during the few last geological periods inclusive, which, as far as regards the cooling of the rock in the lowest abysses, may probably be considered as one, from the extreme slowness with which heat can escape from such depths;—when we reflect how many and wide areas in all parts of the world are certainly known, some to have been rising and others sinking during the recent æra, even to the present day, and do not forget the intimate connexion which has been shown to exist between these movements and the propulsion of liquified rock to the surface in the volcano;—we are urged to include the entire globe in the foregoing hypothesis. 
Charles Darwin, it has been suggested, would be ‘thrilled and excited’ by the developments that have occurred in the study of biological evolution since his own time. Passages from his geological writings such as the above make it clear that he would have greeted subsequent developments in geology, and particularly perhaps the emergence of the theory of plate tectonics, with equal fascination and delight.
From Charles Darwin, ‘On the connexion of certain volcanic phenomena in South America; and on the formation of mountain chains and volcanos, as the effect of the same power by which continents are elevated’, Transactions of the Geological Society of London, series 2, vol. 5, no. 3 (1840), pp. 629-30. Available online at The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online.
For one week from 12 February 2009, the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, The Volcanism Blog will feature a volcano-related quote from Darwin each day.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
