What's Earth Day without an erupting volcano?
The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile erupted Wednesday for the first time in 42 years, causing the evacuation of 1,500 residents of three nearby towns, the Associated Press reports. The areas surrounding the volcano have also been put on high alert.
"For us it was a surprise," Alejandro Verges, regional emergency director of the Los Lagos region tells the AP, adding that Calbuco wasn't under observation for eruption.
The volcano does have a history of explosive eruptions. The last major eruption was in 1961, according to the Global Volcanism Project of the Smithsonian Institution.
Wednesday's eruption sent a giant plume of ash high into the atmosphere. Volcanoes that are lofting huge clouds of ash and other material high into the atmosphere can actually create thunderstorms, known in this case as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, with the Latin prefix "pyro," meaning fire.
The Calbuco volcano stands at 6,500 feet and is one of the top three most potentially dangerous volcanos in Chile.
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#erupcion #Volcan #Calbuco increible vista desde #PuertoVaras. Fuerza sur querido! A photo posted by Josefina Fischer (@jofbroussain) on Apr 22, 2015 at 2:38pm PDT
A photo posted by Yonathan Alvarez (@yonaa_alvarez) on Apr 22, 2015 at 4:04pm PDT
Amo la tierra wn! #love #appbreeze #tweegram #photooftheday #20likes #amazing #smile #follow4follow #like4like #look #instalike #igers #picoftheday #food #instadaily #instafollow #followme #girl #iphoneonly #instagood #bestoftheday #instacool #instago #all_shots #follow #webstagram #colorful #style #swag #photogrid @photogridorg A photo posted by ☠ Sofi ☠ (@sofi.lasserre) on Apr 22, 2015 at 3:15pm PDT