April 23, 2015 by Willem

Thursday/ watch out for volcanoes

I saw pictures of today’s Calbuco volcano eruption on TV, as I got home tonight .. so I had to check it out and see what other spectacular pictures I could find on line. The volcano is more or less in the middle of Chile at an altitude of 6,000 ft (2,000 m) with a crater at the top that is some 1,500 ft (300 m) wide.

IMG_3825 sm — Who knew there is such a thing a volcanic lightning? The eruption and flow of ash in the creates oppositely charged particles in the air similar to what happens during a thunderstorm.

IMG_3827 sm — The view from the town of Puerto Varas. The townsfolk must have thought that the apocalypse had arrived.

volcano_eruption_calbuco_chile_12 — The ash column is about 9 miles high (15 km or 45,000 ft), a lot higher than the altitude that passenger airplane jets fly at.

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