Dark ash plume at Chile’s Planchón-Peteroa

Eruptions reader Gitta noted a fairly impressive ash plume at Chile’s Planchón-Peteroa – at least seen on the webcam. The plume isn’t especially tall (see below), at least not from the vantage point of the webcam, but it is rather dark and grey in complexion, suggesting a lot of fractured rock or new magma in the plume itself. Planchón-Peteroa has been producing intermittent plumes for the past year or so, some as high as 4.6 km / 15,000 feet, but nothing in the way of a large eruption, which the volcano is definitely capable (see the VEI 4 eruption of 1762). The activity has been fairly low as of late, with no SERNAGEOMIN update (spanish) on the volcano since last October. This current plume is likely just more of the same from Planchón-Peteroa, but at least today, the viewing is very nice to see the activity at the remote Chilean volcano.

A webcam capture from Planchón-Peteroa in Chile, as seen at 4:29 PM (local time) on April 26, 2011.

Top left: A 2007 image of the summit region of Planchón-Peteroa. You can see a young blast crater in the foreground with the summit peak in the background. Click here to see the original.