Chilean authorities Thursday insisted on their yellow alert regarding a possible eruption by the Villarrica volcano. “The definition of a potential danger zone consisting of a radius of 500 meters around the crater is maintained,” the National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin) said in a statement.
A NASA scientist has compared this weekend's volcanic eruption off Tonga with the atomic bomb dropped by the United States at the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 and said the recent episode was 500 times worse.
New Zealanders across the country observed a minute of silence on Monday to honour the victims of last week's fatal volcanic eruption. The official death toll from the surprise eruption on White Island, also known by its Maori name of Whakaari, stands at 16. Two people whose bodies are believed to be in the waters around the island are still officially listed as missing.
Several people were injured at White Island in New Zealand when a volcano began erupting there on Monday, the region's mayor said. The eruption began about 2.30 pm local time on the island, about 50km from the east coast of North Island, authorities said, throwing smoke and debris into the air.