About 4,500 people have been evacuated from the immediate area and flights have been cancelled as the biggest eruption in Chile since 2011 left a spectacular plume of ash billowing into the sky.
Flights were interrupted Wednesday as a massive ash cloud erupted from the Calbuco volcano in Chile.
The volcano blasted a giant plume of ash 9 miles into the sky near the town of Puerto Varas, about 625 miles south of Santiago, according to a Reuters report.
The volcano last erupted in 1961, and the plume drifted into both Chile and Argentina, causing the cancellation of flights in both countries and leaving a dusty blanket of ash on the landscape.
The Calbuco volcano has erupted twice in the last 24 hours and could erupt again, authorities believe.
Winds have blown the ash to the city of Chillan, which is about 250 miles to the south of Santiago. The ash could reach the capital soon.
Much of the ash was expected to fall on the Andes mountains and on Argentina, with the possibility of reaching Buenos Aires 900 miles east. Although it isn’t currently forecasted to travel that far, if there is a third eruption, that is a possibility.
Flights are typically delayed due to ash clouds because they can cause the shutdown of engines mid-flight, and a 2011 eruption of the Puyehue volcano in Chile that blasted ash into the atmosphere caused flight cancellations as far as away as Australia, according to the report.
This eruption isn’t quite as bad, and flights headed into Santiago have been monitoring the conditions, which so far hasn’t kept them from arriving at their destinations.
About 4,500 people were evacuated from the immediate area where the eruption happened, and 20 domestic flights have been cancelled at LAN Chile, but flights resumed due to an improvement of conditions as the ash began to dissipate.
Calbuco has had 10 eruptions since 1837, including a huge on in the 1890s and more intense explosions in 1971 that formed a lava dome in the crater accompanied by hot lahars, which is a type of medflow composed of pyroclastic material, rocky debris, and water. Its last major eruption was in 1961, when it sent ash clouds 9 miles into the sky and created two lava flows.
The last eruption was in 1972, making this the sudden reemergence of the Calbuco volcano. A second explosion on Thursday resulted in spectacular images that included lightning flashing in the dark sky that had been turned reddish orange by the eruption, according to a Weather Channel report.
The eruption turned Ensenada into a ghost town at the foot of the volcano, as most of the 1,500 residents had evacuated after the first eruption, with just 30 staying behind to care for their homes or animals.
No one was so far been reported injured.
Chilean emergency officials had only minutes to warn the surrounding area, sending people into a panic, and witnesses described hearing a loud noise that sound like the detonation of an atomic bomb.
The first eruption showed up on infrared satellite, and the second eruption was visible as well even though the ash plume from the first had drifted north.
