Update 5/3/08: SERNAGEOMIN (the Chilean Geologic Survey) is now concerned that the eruption of Chaiten may be a the precursor of a larger eruption, mostly owing to the long (~9,000 year?) repose time. This could be the beginnings of a southern Andean Pinatubo.
The towns around Chaiten are more or less deserted now as the volcano continues to spew ash and pumice - upwards of 15 cm of ash in some places.
Edit: fixed link (thanks Mark)
Edit 2: fixed date of last eruption from ~7,000 years ago to ~9,000 years ago.
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The Chaiten Volcano in Chile is erupting, first time in at least 2000 years, more likely the last eruption was about 10,000 years ago.
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EOS image
(click for hi-res).
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just to let you know your link to ''may be a precursor of a larger eruption'' is broken. this is the correct fixed link.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/1924961/Th…
mark.
Fantastic points. Going to require some time to think about your story!
Exactly what I was looking for. I'm using this in my next blog post, you'll get a backlink of course.