Stunning Photos Of Calbuco Volcano Eruption In Chile That Forced 1,500 To Evacuate

Volcano eruptions are, as a rule, spectacular events. And Calbuco volcano in Chile has erupted twice in the last day. Located in the southern Los Lagos region of Chile, it has erupted ten times since 1837. However, it had remained dormant since 1972, and this eruption has caught everyone by surprise. The volcano towers over the cities of Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, with a combined population of 250,000 people. The authorities have announced a 20km radius evacuation zone, and even Argentina is warning her citizens – living about a 100 km away – to stay at home, in case of volcanic ash. And judging by the footage of the volcano, there's going to be a lot of ash. There's a great deal of smoke rising from the volcano, and it has had some fiery, lightning streaked eruptions, too.

And while we can stay at home and watch these stunning pictures, the local Chileans have a lot to worry about. Calbuco is a stratovolcano, which is fancy talk for “composite volcano”, which is made up of layers of ash, pumice, lava and so forth. Krakatoa was one of these, and its explosion in 1883 was felt around the world, as well as killing more that thirty thousand people. Vesuvius is a an another notable stratovolcano. One thing that's especially dangerous about them is their propensity for producing pyroclastic flows – frighteningly fast ground-hugging flows of ash, debris and hot gas. These flows caused the Krakatoa tsunamis that killed loads of people, and they doomed Pompeii as well.

Hopefully, the Chileans will only experience astonishing views.

(h/t: gizmodo) Image source: imgur.com Image source: time.com Image source: AFP/Scanpix Image source: NoticiasVirales Image source: Marcelo Ultreras Image source: Roger Smith Image source: Philip Oyarzo Image source: Marcelo Ultreras Image source: imgur.com Image source: Roger Smith Image source: Max Perez Image source: Reuters/Scanpix

Eruption timelapse:

A night-time timelapse of the eruption: