May 2, 2008

Steve:

My wife called me from southern Chile yesterday to tell me that they were experiencing a waxing and waining earthquake storm. In Chile, this is usually do to Magma flows. In three years we've been going there, nothing like this has happened. The locals had told us they never get earthquakes there. She said they weren't like earthquakes in California but were sudden jolts. One occurred while I was on the phone with her and they were awakened several times last night. 

This morning she called to say that there was falling ash with a cm on the ground already and collecting quickly. The sky was red from the eruption. The air is so full of fine ash that it looks like falling snow. She is in the Andes less than 50 miles from the volcano.  

Several months ago we went soaking in the hot-springs near this volcano.

I thought you might be interested. I'll try to get some pictures.

CW