These stunning images are from last week's eruption in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain, about 575 miles south of the capital, Santiago. It was not immediately clear which of the chain's four volcanoes had erupted because of ash cover and weather conditions. The chain last saw a major eruption in 1960. 'The Cordon Caulle (volcanic range) has entered an eruptive cycle, with an explosion resulting in a 10-kilometre-high gas column,' the state emergency office ONEMI said. As a precaution, the government evacuated 3,500 people from the surrounding area.
Three years ago, Chile's Chaiten volcano erupted spectacularly for the first time in thousands of years, spewing molten rock and a vast cloud of ash that reached the stratosphere and was visible from space. Chile's chain of about 2,000 volcanoes is the world's second largest after Indonesia. Some 50 to 60 are on record as having erupted, and 500 are potentially active.
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