Puyehue Erupts

Reuters reports:

A volcano dormant for decades erupted in south-central Chile Saturday, belching ash over 6 miles into the sky and prompting the government to evacuate several thousand residents, authorities said.

Winds fanned the ash toward neighboring Argentina, darkening the sky in the ski resort city of San Carlos de Bariloche, a government official there said, adding the city's airport had been closed.
The eruption in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain, about 575 miles south of the capital, Santiago, also prompted Chilean authorities to shut a heavily traveled border crossing into Argentina.

It was not immediately clear which of the chain's four volcanoes had erupted because of ash cover and weather conditions. The chain last saw a major eruption in 1960. Local media said the smell of sulfur hung in the air and there was constant seismic activity.

Pachamama is blowing up. She's angry. She's exploding. Do we know what is vexing her so? If we don't know, we probably need to find out. Quickly.

La Cumbre Erupts

Satellite image of La Cumbre

The New York Times reports:

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Ecuador officials say a volcano is erupting in the Galapagos Islands and could harm unique wildlife.

The Galapagos National Park says La Cumbre volcano began spewing lava, gas and smoke on uninhabited Fernandina Island on Saturday after four years of inactivity.

The park says in a statement the eruption is not a threat to people living on nearby Isabela Island.

But it says lava flowing to the sea will likely affect marine and terrestrial iguanas, sea lions and other fauna.... La Cumbre last erupted in May 2005.

Llaima Again Erupts

The NY Times reports:

Chile's Llaima volcano, one of the most active in South America, spewed out a river of lava more than 1,100 yards long on Saturday in a fresh eruption, prompting officials to order dozens of people to evacuate.

Llaima, which lies in Chile's picturesque lake region about 435 miles south of the capital Santiago, erupted on January 1, 2008, and has belched rock and ash sporadically since then.

The lava and hot gases from the latest eruption are melting snow on the sides of the volcano, and authorities say some towns are in danger of being hit by mudslides.

"We are going to start the evacuation of some people who live in sectors that are particularly vulnerable to the risk of ... avalanches of mud due to melting snow," Johaziel Jamett, head of the early warning center at the National Emergency Office, told Reuters.

Chaiten Erupts

This from Reuters:

Covered in thick ash, the Patagonian community of Chaiten was a ghost town on Saturday as a volcano spewed ash a day after its first eruption in thousands of years forced nearly 4,500 people to flee.

Authorities have evacuated most of the southern Chilean town's residents since Friday, sending many by boat to Chiloe Island farther north and to Puerto Montt on the mainland.

Some are staying in guesthouses, while schools have been turned into makeshift shelters packed with stores of bottled water after a blanket of volcanic ash contaminated ground water.

Only a few dozen people remained in Chaiten, whose snow-capped volcano of the same name erupted on Friday, triggering earth tremors and spewing a cloud of ash two miles into the air. There is no record of the volcano erupting in the last 2,000 years, according to Sernageomin, a government mining and geology agency.

Photos here.

Nevado del Huila in Colombia to Erupt?

Nevado del Huila

Reuters dice:

El Instituto de Geología de Colombia informó que aumentó el lunes a Nivel Dos la alerta del volcán Nevado del Huila, al suroeste del país, por un sorpresivo aumento de su actividad sísmica.

El Nivel Dos o Naranja significa una probabilidad de erupción en días o semanas.

El volcán hizo una erupción de cenizas y gases hace un casi un año lo que provocó una avalancha que averió puentes y carreteras en el suroeste del país sin causar víctimas fatales. En esa oportunidad, se evacuaron más de 3.000 personas en la zona afectada.

And so, folks, here's another volcano that might erupt. The area's been evacuated.

Why don't the English language, traditional media report this? Because it's in Colombia?

Volcanic News: Kilauea Explodes

Kilauea Exploding

This from AP:

VOLCANO, Hawaii - An explosion atop the long-erupting Kilauea volcano rained gravel-size rocks onto a tourist lookout, road and trail before dawn Wednesday, injuring no one but forcing parts of a national park to close.

It was the first explosion in Kilauea's main Halemaumau Crater since 1924, scattering debris over about 75 acres, said Jim Kauahikaua, scientist-in-charge at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on the Big Island.

The 4,190-foot volcano has been erupting from fissures along its side steadily for more than a quarter-century. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park draws thousands of people daily, with a visitors center and lodge near the crater rim.

No lava erupted as part of the 3 a.m. explosion. That suggests it was caused by hydrothermal or gas buildup, Kauahikaua said.

Is it just the Dream Antilles, or have there been a lot of volcanic events in the past few months??