Chile volcano rumbles, people refuse to evacuate

SHAKE AND BLOW

File image: Chaiten volcano. Photo courtesy AFP. Colombia's Galeras volcano erupts
Galeras volcano in southern Colombia erupted on Friday for the second time in less than a week, sending ash raining down but no causing no victims or damage, the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mines said. A forceful eruption began at 7:05 am (1205 GMT), residents reported from the city of Pasto, at the foot of the volcano. The regional alert system was raised to its highest level, the institute said in a statement. The eruption was "accompanied by shock waves," generating vibrating effects and audible rumbles, the institute said. Speaking on Caracol radio emergency official Luz Amanda Pulido reported ash was falling and that contingency evacuation plans were in place if the situation worsens. It follows a similar eruption late Saturday at the volcano, which is located near the border with Ecuador. That eruption caused no casualties or damage, although emergency procedures began to evacuate 8,000 residents. The 4,270-meter (14,009-foot) Galeras has stirred sporadically in recent years. It erupted in January 2008, causing no casualties, but a 1993 eruption claimed the lives of nine people.

by Staff Writers
Santiago (AFP) Feb 20, 2009
Chilean authorities Friday tried to force 46 people to evacuate a southern town near the Chaiten volcano that has rumbled into activity and threatens to devastate the area with pyroclastic flows.

"The government's not going to allow people to burn themselves up or commit collective suicide," Justice Ministry spokesman Francisco Vidal told reporters.

Chaiten volcano erupted in May 2008 forcing the evacuation of all 4,000 inhabitants of Chaiten town, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the mountain.

Most of the 200 people who since returned to the town have been evacuated, but 46 -- including 17 minors -- refuse to leave.

Vidal said the government would do all in its power to evacuate the people left in Chaiten, and the National Minors' Service earlier said it was seeking a court order to have all 17 youths in the group removed forcibly and taken to safety.

After last year's spectacular eruption -- its first in 9,000 years -- that spewed ash as far as Buenos Aires, the 1,000-meter (3,280-foot) tall Chaiten volcano, located some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) south of Santiago, remained largely inactive.

On Thursday, however, the mountain rumbled back into action and experts warn that inside its brooding cauldron a large fissure has formed, threatening imminent disaster.

The fissure "would indicate a clear weakening of the dome that risks a collapse with any new explosion, launching huge pyroclastic flows toward the bed of the (Blanco) river aimed directly at the heart" of Chaiten, the National Emergency Service said in a statement.

Pyroclastic flows are fast-moving currents of hot gas and rock released by volcanos that travel at hundreds of kilometers per hour obliterating everything in their path.

The volcano's new eruptions came only days after the government said it would not rebuild Chaiten in the same location, despite the protests of its inhabitants.

Many of Chaiten's residents who were relocated last year in nearby towns and villages, on Thursday announced they intend to sue Interior Minister Edmundo Perez-Yoma for failing to protect their "living community."

"The government has not made the slightest effort to channel the river, and we believe the government has been negligent because it has not safeguarded the lives of the people or the city itself," said their lawyer Jaime Moraga.

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SHAKE AND BLOW

Ash falls on Tokyo as volcanoes erupt

Tokyo (AFP) Feb 2, 2009
Two volcanoes erupted near major cities in Japan on Monday, with one spewing white smoke and ash into the heart of Tokyo, the weather agency said.

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