From the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior (Onemi) in conjunction with the National Service of Geology and Mining of Chile (Sernageomin), they decreed a yellow alert for four communes in the south of the country due to the activity of the Villarrica volcano.
Specifically, they are the communes of Villarrica, Pucón and Curarrehue in the region of La Araucanía and the commune of Panguipulli in the region of Los Ríos, establishing a security perimeter 500 meters from the crater of the volcano.
The national deputy director of Geology at Sernageomin, Álvaro Amigo, explained that the alert is “the product of an exhaustive analysis of our National Volcanic Surveillance Network and that it shows an abnormal activity of the volcano and that justifies that we go to a yellow technical alert. The important thing is that the various institutions of the National Disaster Prevention and Response System have technical information on what is happening, including the map of potential hazards”.
The massif is a stratovolcano considered the most dangerous in the country and has a historical history of eruptions within South America.
Its volcanic activity involves small explosions of gas bubbles towards the surface that drag magma and “expulsion of pyroclastic flows such as ashes, rocks and others, which at night look like real fireworks,” said Felipe Aguilera, director of the Institute Millennium of Volcanic Risk Research – Ckelar Volcanoes, in conversation with Third.
In addition, Aguilera called on people to stay away from the volcano and follow the instructions of the authorities.
Although its activity is within the parameters of “normality,” says Javiera Caro, a volcanologist at Ckelar Volcanes and a master’s degree in Geology from the Universidad Católica del Norte, in recent weeks it would have intensified.
“This activity is explained because the lava lake that Villarrica has tends to rise, promoted by the rise of the gas. As it expels a large bubble, it generates this type of more visual explosions,” Caro points out to the previously mentioned medium.
VILLARRICA VOLCANO: all the detailed information about this change of #yellowalert for #VolcanVillarrica is available at the link: https://t.co/xbRw64kes7 .
We remind you to follow the social networks of @sernageomin Y @onemichile for updated information. pic.twitter.com/7Fd0tpWnln— Sernageomin (@Sernageomin) November 8, 2022
