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From Times Online
May 4, 2008

Chilean volcano erupts after 2,000 years of silence

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Joanna Sugden and agencies

It had lain dormant for thousands of years but Chaiten, the snow capped volcano in Chile’s Patagonian region, burst back into life, forcing 4,500 people to flee their homes on Friday.

The first eruption for 2,000 years covered the town of Chaiten with thick ash and triggered tremors to cascade across the region of Southern Chile.

Residents were evacuated by boat to Chiloe Island, further south, and to Puerto Montt, on the mainland. Before they were ferried to safety, some people in the area donned white surgical facemasks to avoid inhaling the ash that lay 6 inches (15 cm) deep in some areas.

Chile's National Emergency Office said fine ash was still falling today. Visibility remained poor as ash clouded the skies and the smell of sulfur hung heavy in the air.

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“The panorama here is pretty complicated,” Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said during a visit to the area.

“We have completed the first phase of the operation, which was the evacuation of practically all of the local population

“We don't know if this is a situation that will last days, or weeks or even more.”

There is no record of the volcano erupting in the last 2,000 years according to Sernageomin, a government mining and geology agency, and some residents of the town had never left Chaiten’s shadow until the eruption forced them to leave.

Chile’s 2,000 volcanoes include two of Latin America’s most active - Villarica and Llaima. Scientists say some 500 are potentially active. Chile has the world’s second most active string of volcanoes behind Indonesia.

Llaima, about 435 miles south of Santiago, erupted on New Year’s Day, spewing ash and molten lava and forcing dozens of tourists and staff to evacuate a wilderness park. It also spewed ash in February and lava crept down its slopes.

After the ash has settled, the farmers should have some pretty fertile soils. Am predicting bumper crops!

belinda, Minneapolis, United States

Well that will have messed up Chiles' carbon emission targets for the next few years.
Its a good job they're not in the EU else it would have cost them a fortune in fines

Richard Garland, Greater Manchester,

I wonder what will be the effect of ash on decreasing the average global temperature and its effect on crop cultivation. I bet ag prices will go higher if ash cover is thick enough to decrease the temperature.

Lucas, Toronto, Canada

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