![]() He explained the mechanics in a study published by UBA’s agriculture department in February: “The ashes deposited on the leaves act like an umbrella, they reduce the quantity of solar radiation a plant can absorb. Analyzing satellite images that show the extent of ash coverage on vegetation, Irisarri estimates that plant productivity in the region is at its lowest in 10 years. One scientist seeking anwers is Gonzalo Irisarri at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). What kind of environmental effect would this lasting layer of ash have? But the region’s lakes, rivers and flora were all still shrouded in gray ash. Downed power lines were replaced, collapsed roofs fixed, the roads plowed of pumice. Over the next few days, the sunshine returned and the slow process of cleanup began. ![]() Inhalation or contact with the skin and eyes produces irritation, which can especially exacerbate pre-existing respiratory conditions like chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma. The health risk was immediate: volcanic ash contains crystalline silica, a fine powder chemically similar to glass. ![]() In the days following the eruption, people were advised by local health officials to wear face masks and stay indoors as more than a foot of ash settled on the region like a blanket of gray snow. There are thousands of uncertainties and the people don’t feel protected.” ![]() This happened in Bariloche and Villa La Angostura and this has both an economic and a psychological cost. Power lines and electrical towers get covered and since ash is a conductor, they short-circuit. He gives me an example: “When volcanic ash falls, the first service to go is electricity. “You want the community to be prepared to face a catastrophe,” says Villarosa. Villarosa told them the eruption was imminent and urged the drafting of a contingency plan. In the weeks leading up to the eruption, Villarosa and his colleagues met several times with authorities in Bariloche and Villa La Angostura-less than 100 kilometers to the north-to warn them that seismic activity was becoming stronger and more frequent, one of the few tell-tale signs scientists have of an impending volcanic eruption. “The pumps corroded, the filters were blocked up” Local officials had time to plan for the eruption but didn’t, he says. The ash fouled the city’s sewage treatment plant and municipal water purification system, says Villarosa. “We’re going to be paying for this for years,” says Gustavo Villarosa, a volcanologist based in Bariloche at the National University of Comahue. 3,500 people were evacuated from the immediate vicinity in Chile and towns as far as Bariloche in Argentina-about 130 kilometers away-were blanketed in a foot of volcanic ash that short-circuited power lines and closed highways. One hundred million cubic meters of pyroclastic material were released per day in the initial phase of the eruption, according to Chile’s National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin). Last June’s erupton didn’t originate in a single crater but came from many fractures and fissures. ![]() It has more than 60 historically or potentially-active volcanoes. Puyehue-Cordón Caulle sits along an eighteen-kilometer section of the Andes about 100 kilometers east of Osorno in southern Chile that churns with volcanic activity. Now, more than nine months later, the complex is still rumbling and sending ash billowing into the Argentine resort towns of Bariloche and Villa La Angostura. Within hours, ash was raining down on both sides of the Argentine-Chilean border, forcing schools, roads and airports to shut down. A thick brown cloud of ash shot nine miles into the air, ejected from the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex in Chile’s lake district. ![]()
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