Volcano Villarrica erupts in southern Chile, villages evacuated

[Bosonic]

Last edited Tue Mar 3, 2015, 06:15 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

Volcano Villarrica in southern Chile erupted in the early hours of Tuesday, sending ash and lava high into the sky, and forcing the evacuation of nearby communities.

The volcano, located near the popular tourist resort of Pucon around 750 km (460 miles) south of the capital Santiago, is one of South America's most active. It last erupted in 2000.

Television pictures showed orange lava and ash shooting into the night sky. Some 3,385 people had been evacuated as a preventative measure, said Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo.

The government was holding an emergency meeting in the presidential palace in Santiago on Tuesday morning to discuss the situation.


Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/03/03/us-chile-volcano-idUKKBN0LZ0UA20150303

---

[aquart]

1. Is this what Pompeii saw?

How far away were the communities evacuated?

[Warpy]

3. Dunno, he's about 16 miles away

while Pompeii was only about 5-6 miles down from the cone. The people in Pompeii likely had no clue what was happening beyond earthquakes and the development of a huge, black cloud above them that started to rain small pumice stones on them, together with big rocks and a few boulders. Then, of course, it got much worse than that.

Pliny the Elder saw it from across the bay and surmised it was a "fire mountain" like the ones that existed elsewhere around the Mediterranean. Pliny the Younger, his nephew I believe, is the one who wrote the detailed description of the eruption that was discounted as fiction until quite recently and is now considered the first text of volcanology.

I imagine all villages anywhere on the cone or in the surrounding valley have been evacuated. They're old hands at predicting this particular volcano, it's one of the most active.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Wow!

[uppityperson]

4. stand and watch in amazement or flee in terror?

[redwitch]

5. Mordor!

Come on Frodo! Drop the damn ring already!

[freshwest]

6. Nice, primordial scenery... n/t

[Baclava]

7. for sure