Here’s a pretty cool video…
…that was shown on Peru news TV last night of one of the explosions at the Ubinas volcano in the Southern region of Moquegua yesterday. This morning the alert level has been raised further and 4,000 people (plus many thousands of head of livestock) are being evacuated.
However, overall Ubinas isn’t a volcano that the world should fret about unless you live very close to it, within let’s say 20km or so (and what’s more, it’s a sparsely populated area). Ubinas is one of the most active volcanoes in the Andean chain at the moment and belches out pretty regularly, but in this cycle at least (100+ years, which is like a human yesterday in geological timespans) hasn’t gone in for a catastrophic full blown eruption. Ash and health issues for locals, yes. More activity and regional nuisance, yes. Mount St Helens II, very unlikely indeed.