Chile's Puyehue Volcano

Watching an eruption reminds you of how tiny humans are in the scheme of things. We love to think that we are "changing the planet" but an eruption shows us that our influence is still small compared to natural processes:



Here are some nice pictures of the volcano in The Atlantic magazine.

Update 2011jun15: Here is a video of the eruption:



And here is a video of ash on Lake Nahuel Huapi:



From the Montreal Gazette:

Chilean experts said Puyehue's "plume" had almost made a complete circuit of Earth, with the circumference of the planet being some 24,900 miles (40,000 kilometers).

The ash cloud belching out over the past 12 days, and carried eastward by winds of up to 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour was expected to reach Chile again by the end of this week.

"The plume is already at (Easter Island's capital) Rapa Nui and should be tapping us on the back on Saturday," said Pablo Ortega, the secretary general of Chile's civil aviation agency.

Easter Island is in the Pacific Ocean, 3,500 kilometers from the coast of mainland Chile.

Chile's National Geology and Mining Service said the volcano was showing "instability" as measured by seismic readings and the height of the ash cloud, which initially reached nine kilometers into the troposphere but now floated at seven kilometers.

That meant "it is possible there will be a return to increased eruptive activity," it said in its last bulletin.

Sally Cutter, from Australia's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, said the lower level of the ash near Perth did pose a risk.

"Volcanic ash makes it dangerous to fly, particularly for jet engines, due to the fact it can cause the engines to stop, so it's really up to each individual airlines to assess the risk they're prepared to take," she told reporters.

Update 2011jul06: The Boston Globe newspapers site The Big Picture has some very nice pictures from the previous month's ash fallout.