2011–2012 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption
Volcanic eruption in Chile / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2011–2012 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption ([puˈʝewe]) was a volcanic eruption that began in the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex in Chile on 4 June 2011. The eruption, which occurred from the Cordón Caulle fissure after 51 years of the volcano being inactive, is one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 21st century thus far.[2] At least 3,500 people were evacuated from nearby areas,[3] while the ash cloud was blown across cities all around the Southern hemisphere, including Bariloche, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Stanley, Porto Alegre, Cape Town, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington, Auckland and Port Moresby, forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of international and domestic flights and causing travel chaos.
2011–2012 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption | |
---|---|
Volcano | Puyehue-Cordón Caulle |
Start date | 4 June 2011 (2011-06-04)[1] |
End date | 21 April 2012 (2012-04-21)[1] |
Type | Plinian |
Location | Ranco Province, Chile 40°35′25″S 72°07′02″W |
VEI | 5[1] |
By 18 June the ash cloud had completed its first circle of the globe. The Chilean civil aviation authority said that "the tip of the cloud that has travelled around the world has more or less reached the town of Coyhaique", about 600 kilometres south of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle.[4] An estimated one hundred million tons of ash, sand and pumice were ejected – requiring power equivalent to 70 Hiroshima atomic bombs.[5]
Cordón Caulle is a volcanic fissure and has erupted many times in recorded history, most recently in 1960, following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake days earlier,[6] whereas the Puyehue stratocone has remained dormant.