Something Strange With Volcano Eruption in Chile
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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Ken, Anyone that would question why you would post a volcano on a ‘survival site’ only has to see what past volcanic eruptions have done to people’s lives, even far away from the obvious destruction of being close to the volcano going off. When Tambora blew in 1815 it threw the world into the ‘little ice age’ and if a similar volcano or stronger blew today there would be a lot of people that wished that they had prepared from some survival site beforehand after the world’s crop and food suppply drops dramatically. There was mass starvation after 1815 in various places around the world and it could happen again at anytime. Besides this I was looking at the visitor map from this site and there are a few people that in Chile looking at Modern Survival and I am sure they appreciate the coverage of possibly surviving what might be coming.
Ken, I looked at more survival sites in an unbiased way and I still say that this is the best site, simple as that.
Question why this would be on a survivalist site? Hardly. Events like these are precisely WHY we prepare a bug-out-bag and keep the car fueled up. Far better to see these on CNN than from our front yard.
You wrote: “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.”
But not unprecedented. This is exactly the way that the Hawaiian Islands were formed. The reason that the magma picked a new spot to erupt from is plate tectonics. As the earths crust slides around on the earth’s mantle, a weaker place in the crust moved over the venting area and bingo, we have a new caldera forming at the place the crust is weakest. If this was Hawaii, there would be a new island forming. The crust slides, earthquakes happen and occasionally (especially in the ring of fire) a volcano is born!
And of course this should be on Modern Survival!! We have a few volcanoes on our own Continent that are wayyyyy over due, one of them Mt. Ranier! Then there’s Yellowstone too . . . I guess we should choose the type disaster we want to survive, then move there! LOL
Would YOU know what to do with thousands of tons of talcum powder fine ash in your yard, your home, and your lungs? Nothing stops it. It shorts out all electronics, freezes your combustion engines, and causes night-time darkness in the middle of the day. Of all the natural disasters, this is the one that I fear the most. (fear= The least prepared for.)
I agree, it would be unimaginable if any of the world’s ‘super volcanoes’ blew up. Yellowstone in particular. It is currently within the historical time frame of when it erupts (about every 600,000 years if I remember correctly).
I wonder if there is anything to put over your cars intake to stop ash clogging up the filter??? Silk screen seems very fine and if oiled this may reduce the intake?
Also I guess having a dust mask at your disposal & a few spare filter cartridges wouldnt go astray in the event of a disaster that emits dust…
I second everything that has been said about your article thus far. Yay, Modern Survival Blog!
It is definitely a survival issue, if not a survivalist’s issue. Just ask the people that survived the Mt. St. Helen’s eruption in 1980.
My parents were living in Victoria, BC, at the lower end of Vancouver Island, Canada, at the time of the eruption. My mom was standing at the kitchen window and felt the gust of wind caused by the eruption. There was a lot of fine dust, even there, afterward.
I just recently became aware of the Yellowstone caldera. It would affect us in Canada, too.
Thanks. Yes, a Yellowstone eruption would change the world. The U.S. would be devastated. Massive crop failures, combustion engine failures, and much of the country would be covered with ash followed by many many deaths of animals and humans. Global temperatures would drop drastically, affecting global food production and probably a mini ice age… however these are all ingredients for it’s own post article
Wow,
How could you NOT know about Yellowstone caldera?? We live in Australia and we are very aware of its due date and the effect it would have on the planet. Geez, I hope you’re not asleep about all the other possibilities in your neck of the woods?? Another good site is http://www.sott.net Probably got heaps more info re USA, CAn taht it has for Oz so get onto it, open your eyes my friend!
Otter, thanks for the link.
I live in the PAcific NW and my home is actually a couple of miles from a growing “bulge” on the flanks of a dormant volcano. The memory of Mt St. Helens is still strong. It does indeed seem that volcanoes erupt in concert with other volcanoes. But do not forget there is another super volcano in the U.S. that has more threatening signs then Yellowstone. I am referring to Long Valley Caldera better known by the name Mammoth Mountain. It would affect a larger population then Yellowstone if it exploded and it has been menacing for many years now. Another important point about mammoth mountain is that 20+ years ago the scientists warned us about it but the developers in the area were quite angry over these warnings. Sales of condos at what would become ground zero fell off. So these developers threatened some pretty serious legal action and effectively muffled the scientists. So still today it is off limits to discuss or warn about Mammoth Mountain blowing it’s top and killing a few million people.
The question(s) are: is there a connection between volcanoes on the Pacific plate? Who (which) is next? Will we get effective warning?
Dear Messrs
Thank you very much for this very clear and smart information, here in Chile Onemi says all is normal and on the other hand Sernageomin says the Volcano still in evolution, i send this page to a lot of friends.
Best regards
George
Santiago, Chile
Near three volcanoes
Tupungato, Tupungatito and Maipo (90 kms SE Santiago)
airlines cancelling flights….????? in australia. i would like someone to direct me to where can i find info on the ash cloud of the recently erupted chile volcano(replyhere).
i am having trouble beleiving these airlines here (they are going broke) and their justification for cancelling flights right across the southern oceans . anyone else sus?
AND this is the prime example of why volcano survival should be on here. global and local people are stranded right accross the southern hemisphere, in airports (trapped german family in australia, destintation new zealand??) with limited resources and the visa laws are rediculous for situations just like this.
HOW WOULD YOU SURVIVE 35hrs (and counting) STRANDED AND MADE TO PAY AND PAY($) FOR IT??? OR WORSE…
“Many are called but few are chosen”. The Lord will judge humanity. It’s also called ‘The Night of Pan – N.O.X.’. Mother Nature will reduce the population pressure with about 90% in the next 30 years. You can imagine why. Too much of the Homo Sapiens is a planetary disease.