Chaitén Volcano

Chile / Los Lagos / Castro /
Last known eruption was in 7,420 B.C. (give or take a couple of years.)
Photo of the recent eruption shows column of ash billowing at least 14 kilometers into the stratosphere.

Chaitén is a small, glacier-free late-Pleistocene caldera with a Holocene lava dome located 10 km NE of the town of Chaitén on the Gulf of Corcovado. The north side of the rhyolitic, 962-m-high obsidian lava dome occupying the 3.5-km-wide caldera is unvegetated. Obsidian cobbles from this dome found in the Blanco River are the source of prehistorical artifacts from archaeological sites along the Pacific coast as far as 400 km away from the volcano to the north and south. The caldera is breached on the SW side by a river that drains to the bay of Chaitén, and the high point on its southern rim reaches 1122 m. Two small lakes occupy the caldera floor on the west and north sides of the lava dome. Moreno (1985 pers. comm.) noted that the nearby volcano of Yelcho listed by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (1973) does not exist.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaiten_Volcano
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   42°50'9"S   72°39'4"W

Comments

  • Has recently erupted (May 2008) provoking ash-rain in a zone spanning more than 300 km to the east. All populations at 50 km around must evacuate.
  • This eruption started on 2nd May 2008 and is the first recorded eruption of Chaiten for approximately 9000 years. It has already resulted in the evacuation of Chaiten and evacuations have occurred at a second town, Futaleufu - 7 May 2008
  • The ashes produced by the eruption have been mixed with water, transforming this combination in a volcanic mud, which threatens nearby inhabitants.
This article was last modified 18 years ago