Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption

Between 20:00 on 2 June and 19:59 on 3 June, OVDAS reported that about 1,450 earthquakes at Puyehue-Cordón Caulle were detected, or an average of about 60 earthquakes per hour. Scientists and regional authorities flew over the volcano, noting no significant changes. The alert level remained at 3, yellow. Area residents reported feeling earthquakes during the evening of 3 June through the morning of 4 June.

On 4 June, at 11:30 local time, a new round of eruption in the Puyehue volcano began. For a six-hour period on 4 June seismic activity increased to an average of 230 earthquakes per hour, at depths of 1–4 km. About 12 events were magnitudes greater than 4 of Richtermagnitude, and 50 events were magnitudes greater than 3. The alert level was raised to 5, red.

At 15:15 local time OVDAS reported an explosion and a 5 kilometres (3.1 mi)-wide ash-and-gas plume that rose to an altitude of 10 kilometres (33,000 ft) above sea level. The plume drifted south at 5 kilometres (16,000 ft) altitude, and southeast and east at 10 kilometres (33,000 ft) altitude. The alert level was raised to 6, red.18 days after it first erupted, lava begun spilling from the volcano, heading west and flowing "slowly by a channel about 50 meters wide and 100 feet long."According to Argentine physicists, the eruption sent one hundred million tons of ash, sand and pumice stone, equivalent to the load of 24 million trucks of sand and released power equivalent to 70 atomic bombs.[clarification needed] The eruption, though violent, is expected to fertilize the land and rivers.Misleadingly called by media the Puyehue eruption – the eruption is actually from the Cordón Caulle fissure after 51 years of the volcano being inactive. At least 3,500 people were evacuated from nearby areas.