The Calbuco Volcano, dormant for four decades, sends a plume of thick smoke into the air.
It was a very little precursory activity at Calbuco.
And just the one hour before the eruption, they observed a signal that was interpreted to detect the magma coming through the volcano.
The entire Andes Mountain range is a highly active volcanic area.
It's in a subduction zone, where one continental plate is forced under another.
Then the subduction zone is going down.
It goes through the transformation and all the sea water is pressed out,
it will enter into the mantle and lowered the solid, so the magma comes up.
This column of ash is a result of high pressure gases trapped in the magma inside the volcano's reservoir.
As the gases are forced out, they lose pressure and swell.
Taking with them small particles of lava.
The plume is unusually high.
Rising 20 kilometers above the surface of the earth between the troposphere and the stratosphere.
If the column of ash were to collapse onto the town of Puerto Montt and its 22,0000 inhabitants, the results would be devastating.
You have a threshed omega.
And its diluted in contact with the atmosphere.
So you form a kind of a mushroom shape on the top, and then this is no longer sustainable.
It will fall down and you can form a pyroclastic flows that will fill the low, the valleys, etc.
And can flow very hot material and be very devastating.
Fortunately, the wind from the Pacific picks up, pushing the plume to the east where the mountains are unpopulated.
The ash spreads to Argentina, where the authorities are forced to close the airspace.
The ash is a dire threat to aircraft engines.
Very small particles, less than 10 micrometer size.
Not very healthy to breathe, because they have their sharp edges and they can cut a little bit of your interior.
Puerto Montt is spared for the moment.
But regarding the farms, it looks like the ash will be a major problem for the livestock.
You may have volcanic gases coming along if they are very rich in fluoride.
And this fluoride can stick to the to the surface of the range.
And if the animals eat a lot of the fluoride, they will lose the teeth and their bones.
But the main thing, is the roofs of houses collapsing, and pollution of water sources.
Not a drop of drinking water remains.
Ash and sulfur a contaminate all the rivers.
In some areas, the layer of volcanic debris is so thick that the water is no longer even visible.
We have four days until Wednesday when it is due to rain.
So we need to have finished the houses there in this state before then.
Rain is not to be taken lightly in this area of Chile, where clouds loaded with water from the Pacific Ocean,
are blocked by the Andes and release their charge in violent storms causing landslides of mud and ash.