According to the Associated Press, the government of Chile has chosen to build three new volcano monitoring centers. Several of the country’s 122 active volcanoes have erupted this year, the most notable event being a sustained eruption of the Chaitén Volcano that started on May 2nd.
After the initial volcanic activity began, approximately 4,500 people were evacuated from the town of Chaitén, which sits at the base of volcano. The eruption lasted through various levels of intensity through July, and several amazing, cool, and intriguing photos depict an electrical storm that occurred one evening directly above the volcano. Currently, a different eruption that commenced on July 2nd within the Llaima Volcano has other Chilean communities on alert.
Chile’s government currently only closely watches 8 of the 122 active volcanoes that loom within the country’s borders. The country is in part of the large volcanic region that is known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire.” The so-called Ring contains over 75% of the world’s active volcanoes. For this reason, and because of the recent uproar of volcanic activity, the Chilean government has decided to spend $31 million dollars to build the three aforementioned new monitoring stations.
Across the world, Chile is only second to Indonesia in its number of active volcanoes. The United States has five volcano monitoring stations, operated by the USGS and several partners. One of these stations is located in Hawaii and monitors the island state’s volcanoes. One of these is Kileau, thought to currently be the most active volcano in the world.
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Photo Credit and Info: Lava spewing from Chile’s Villarrica Volcano. Photo from welsh boy on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
wow! 122 active volcanoes. That is impresive. But why the government only monitored 8?