Chaitén update at the Eruptions blog

Chaitén update at the Eruptions blog 25 January 2009

Posted by admin in Chaitén, Chile, eruptions, geoscience, volcanology.
Tags: Chaitén, Chile, geoscience, South America, volcanic eruptions, volcanology
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The Chaitén eruption has volcanologists and geologists everywhere excited, and was evidently the subject of much discussion at the American Geophysical Union Fall 2008 meeting in San Francisco.

Dr Erik Klemetti was there, and has posted a valuable update on his Eruptions blog summarizing what was said about Chaitén at the meeting and giving copious links to the relevant abstracts and other sources. Among the interesting points to note are that we seem to be looking at a very deep source for Chaitén’s magma and that earthquakes may have played a role in instigating the eruption. Check out Dr Klemetti’s post for the background.

There’s no doubt that Chaitén is going to be keeping the scientists busy for a long time to come.

Chaitén coverage here at The Volcanism Blog: Chaitén « The Volcanism Blog.
Chaitén coverage at Eruptions: Chaiten « Eruptions.

Comments

1. john - 27 January 2009: I’m from about 100 miles north of the volcano, and continuosly you can seen the ash-steam plume with fair weather. One of the most intriguing facts were the very short time between the first “predecessor” quake and the start of the eruption (less than one and a half day). Then, 20 days after, a large swarm began 90 km north of Chaitén, and is still going on. A year before eruption, another large swarm took place in Puerto Aysén, more than 200 km south of the volcano.

All this evidences the activity of the Liquiñe-Ofqui fault (1200 km long) that is not well-known, and in less than 2 years, we have 3 emergencies in the zone.