MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chaiten volcano gives no rest and thickens ash blanket

More than 5 000 people had been evacuated in southern Chile, following the eruption of the Chaiten volcano. On Monday, authorities evacuated the town of Futaleufu, some 60 kilometers from the volcano while the remaining residents of the town of Chaiten had left over the weekend.

Futaleufu was covered with a thick 20 centimeters blanket of volcanic ash that had partially become a hardened crust as the result of recent rain, Mayor Arturo Carvallo told the daily El Tiempo.Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who visited the ghost town of Chaiten on Sunday, was expected to visit Futaleufu on Monday. Agriculture is the main source of income in this thinly populated region some 1 000 kilometers south of the Chilean capital, Santiago, and Carvallo said it was now essential to rescue livestock in the area and begin with a compensation plan for animals lost. The blanket of ash left livestock with no food and water sources are contaminated. Chaiten volcano which had been geologically considered inactive for centuries erupted last Friday spewing ashes 20 kilometers into the atmosphere covering nearby villages and forests and areas of neighboring Argentina. Schools were closed as far away as the Argentine Patagonian province of Chubut, across the Andes, where flights had to be cancelled and face masks distributed among the local population. Volcanology experts do not rule out a more intense eruption in the near future with lava and the continuation of earth tremors that have been shaking the area.