Chaitén (volcano)

The caldera is located in the lower right corner of the town of Chaitén on the coast, to the south.

The Chaitén is a 1,122 meter high volcano in the Andes of Patagonia in the south of Chile. It is located ten kilometers northeast of the homonymous small coastal town of Chaitén in the very volcanically active region of the South American Cordilleras. Its summit caldera has a maximum diameter of 3.53 km, and is almost completely filled with the rocks composed of rhyolite and obsidian Lavadomen. These domes reach a height of 962 meters above sea level and are partially covered by vegetation. Inside the caldera on the edge of the lava domes are also two small lakes, one on the west and one on the north side.

According to a radiocarbon dating of the last lava flow, the penultimate eruption took place about 9450 years ago. Since 2008, the volcano erupted more or less continuously.

Eruption in 2008

On 2 May 2008 broke Chaitén, which had been considered extinct, surprisingly again. An up to 20 km high ash cloud rose above the crater and within four days, more than 60 volcanic earthquakes were triggered.

Due to some pyroclastic flows that were triggered by the partial demolition of the lava dome and in anticipation of a major explosive eruption, the national Chilean Disaster Management Authority has imposed the highest alert for the affected region and explains the Chilean government, the area around the volcano to the disaster area. Just a few hours after the onset of eruptions began due to the continued strong ash-fall with bringing the first residents to safety. In the same town of Chaitén an approximately 15 centimeters high fine ash layer overlaid on what led to numerous water supplies were contaminated. From 3 to 5 May 3300 the inhabitants were evacuated Chaiténs and 700 more from the immediate vicinity. An elderly woman was killed, however.

On May 4, the Chilean President Michelle Bachelet visited with some of her ministers the affected area and briefed on safety measures. The following day, she flew with her team about the volcano in the 75 km southeast of the mountain, this village of Futaleufu (not to be confused with the Argentine Department of Futaleufu ) and attended the local evacuation of 1,000 people at. This had become necessary because the wind had fanned the ash cloud. She was already being dragged away in a southeasterly direction across the entire width of Patagonia and had reached the 660 km distant shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Due to this expansion also occurred in Argentina to massive ash fall. The eruptions stopped at the rest of the year, and in its course formed in the crater of the volcano several lava domes, one of which reached the youngest a height of 120 meters. On February 19, 2009, this collapsed to share and created a five- kilometer-long pyroclastic flow, which flowed into the valley of the Chaitén. On this day 135 of the last 160 remaining inhabitants Chaiténs were evacuated. However, some residents did not want to leave the area.

Meanwhile, it turned out that it was the very gassy, ie viscose, rock of Chaitén was which makes the eruptions so special explosive. It was the first scientifically observable rhyolitic eruptions.