SANTIAGO, Chile — The long-dormant Chaiten volcano blasted ash 20 miles into the Andean sky Tuesday, forcing thousands to evacuate and fouling a huge stretch of the South American continent.
The thick column of ash climbed into the stratosphere and blew eastward for hundreds of miles over Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean, forcing schools and a regional airport to close.
Citizens of Chile and Argentina were advised to wear masks to avoid breathing the dangerous fallout.
The 5-day-old eruption is the first in at least 9,000 years for the volcano in southern Chile, according to volcanologists at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Chilean officials ordered the total evacuation of Chaiten, a small provincial capital just 6 miles from the roiling cloud.
Also emptied was the soot-coated border town of Futaleufu, about 75 miles from the volcano.
The gritty, gray-white blizzard covered houses, roads and even cattle.
Volcanologist Juan Cayupi reported that Chaiten’s two small craters have morphed into a large, single crater.
Lava was rising within this crater but has not yet spilled over, said Luis Lara, another volcanologist.
Experts said it is too early to say whether the volcano will affect the world’s climate.
