Pictures: Chile Volcano Plume Explodes With Lightning

Apocalyptic Plume

Photograph by Ivan Alvarado, Reuters

A Lord of the Rings-worthy plume rises roughly six miles (ten kilometers) above Chile's Puyehue volcano (map) Sunday. As of Monday, activity at the volcano appeared to have tapered off, according to Telam, Argentina's government news agency.

Even so, danger remains. In a statement on website of the regional government of Los Rios, Chile, for example, Governor Juan Andrés Varas warned that ash and potentially poisonous volcanic gases are slowly rolling toward a nearby valley. "Fortunately, the valley doesn't drop abruptly, so we have time to evacuate," Varas was quoted as saying by CNN.

(Related pictures: "Chile Volcano Erupts With Ash and Lightning [2008].")

Published June 6, 2011

Staying Put

Photograph by Ivan Alvarado, Reuters

Locals stay put near the city of Osorno (map) on Saturday as Chile's Puyehue volcano (map) sends ash sky high.

Chile's undersecretary of labor, Rodrigo Ubilla said some area residents refused for leave out of fear for their livestock, according to the Associated Press. In 2008 deadly ash from Chile's Chaiten volcano harmed stranded animals.

Farther afield, ash—driven by easterly winds on Saturday and early Sunday—had coated an Argentinean highway, blanketed a ski resort in that country, and closed schools and airports in the region.

If inhaled, volcanic ash can cause breathing problems, particularly among people with asthma or other respiratory conditions. (Related: "Iceland Volcano Ash Plume Prompts Health Worries [April 2010].")

Published June 6, 2011

Ashfall in Argentina

Photograph by Alfredo Leiva, AP

Workers bulldozers volcanic ash from Chile's Puyehue volcano (map), in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina on Sunday. The resort town was forced to close its airport due to the weekend eruption.

Shifting winds on Sunday sent more ash raining down on neighboring Chile.

"The situation is very complicated," said Santiago Rozas, mayor of Lago Ranco, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of the eruption, according to the AP. "The shift means that we will have a rain of ash, with damage for the population and a threat to smallholder farming."

(See aerial pictures taken in March 2010 of the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.)

Published June 6, 2011

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Photograph by Ivan Alvarado, Reuters

Lightning crackles around a miles-high ash plume above Chile's Puyehue volcano (map) on Saturday.

A volcanic lightning storm isn't "unlike a regular old thunderstorm," Martin Uman, a lightning expert at the University of Florida in Gainesville, told National Geographic News in 2010.

The same ingredients are present: water droplets, ice, and possibly hail—all interacting with each other and with particles, in this case ash from the eruptions, to cause electrical charging, Uman said. (See pictures of a volcanic lightning storm in Iceland.)

Published June 6, 2011

Night Lights

Photograph by Daniel Basualto, European Pressphoto Agency

Illuminated and electrified by lightning, a roiling ash and gas plume rises over Chile's Puyehue volcano (map) Sunday.

There may be as many as three distinct types of volcanic lightning, volcanic seismologist Steve McNutt told National Geographic News in 2010.

Large, spectacular "natural fireworks" sometimes accompany eruptions, along with an intermediate type, which shoots up from a volcano's vents and reaches lengths of about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), and finally bolts that can be as short as about three feet (one meter) long and last just a few milliseconds.

Published June 6, 2011

Back to Life

Photograph by Ivan Alvarado, Reuters

Dormant for decades, Puyehue volcano (map) crackles back to life Saturday.

All types of lightning, particularly volcanic lightning, are still largely mysteries to scientists, the University of Florida's Uman told National Geographic News in 2010.

Since people can't easily get inside thunder and lightning storms, no one knows exactly how they form, he added.

Published June 6, 2011

Where There's Smoke ...

Photograph by Ivan Alvarado, Reuters

Police officers gather as smoke and ash rise from Puyehue volcano (map) near Osorno, Chile, on Saturday.

With hundreds of active volcanoes, Chile lies in the Ring of Fire—a series of volcanoes and fault lines that roughly encircle the Pacific Ocean.

Published June 6, 2011