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Geology News
South America Current Events

Links to recent news items related to a partial ash cloud collapse and regional context. New videos from under the ash plume with street, farm, landscape and aerial scenes.

U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents seized four tons of fossils from a dealer at the 2006 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Now they are on their way back to Argentina where they were removed from the country illegally.

A collection of resources for the recent eruption of Chaiten Volcano in Chile. Included are maps, satellite images, news items and background. Chaiten erupted for the first time in about 9000 years last week resulting in the evacuation of thousands of people and significant financial loss.

Bolivia typically exports a lot of natural gas to Brazil and Argentina. However, now as the South American winter is approaching, lower than expected production levels have forced Bolivia to cut its exports. Now Brazil and Argentina face shortages when gas is needed for space heating.

Chaiten Volcano is pumping out such an intense amount of ash that its plume visibly extends on satellite images from Chile, across Argentina and over the Atlantic Ocean. Earth Observatory has natural color and infrared images of the plume.

Chaiten Volcano Resource Page

China is investing a lot more in South America. Aluminum Corporation of China is spending $2.15 billion on the Toromocho Copper Project. This site has an estimated 1.526 millon tons in copper reserves and will host a new smelter to yield 250,000 tons per year.

Chaitén Volcano in southern Chile erupted on May 2nd for the first time in over 9000 years with a plume of ash and steam that reached altitudes of over 15 kilometers. Earth Observatory has a satellite image showing the eruption plume drifting into neighboring Argentina.

Chaiten Volcano Resource Page

An article on the GEOTIMES website by Benjamin A. Eisterhold and Michael E. Webber explores how some countries try to seize or monetize mineral resources that are being developed by foreign companies or being exported. Examples include: Venezuela and the North Sea area.

The government of Chile has declared a state of emergency with the eruption of Chaiten Volcano in the southern part of the country. Ash falls are making breathing difficult and being carried by wind into neighboring Argentina. About 1000 people are evacuating.

Chaiten Volcano Resource Page

An article on the Geotimes website explores some of Ecuador’s volcanoes. Some of these volcanoes are not technically difficult climbs. For example, if you are in fairly good shape, have several days and a reasonable amount of resolve you can make it to the top of Cotopaxi.

An article at the GEOTIMES website presents information on hematite mining in Peru about 2000 years ago. The Nasca people produced over 3000 tons of hematite for use as a pigment.

National Geographic Related Article

Colombia’s Nevado del Huila volcano erupted early this week, sending a shower of hot ash over the surrounding landscape. Thousands of people evacuated as minor eruptions continued.

An interesting article from the Wall Street Journal about a geologist searching for copper in the Peruvian Andes. The goal is to capture reserves quickly.

A collection of photos that trace some of the activities of geologist, Torsten Danne, who searches for copper in Peru for the Rio Tinto Group.

The impact crater that was produced in Peru last September is getting careful investigation. At first some people thought that the whole story was fake, however, investigators have found “shock” features and an intimate mixing of meteoritic fragments in debris surrounding the crater.

Earth Observatory has a satellite image of the Serra da Cangalha impact crater of northern Brazil. This 220 million-year-old crater is in sedimentary rocks that are about 300 million years old. It is Brazil’s best preserved impact crater.

Amphibians in South America have been dying off at an alarming rate. The Carrikeri harlequin frog hasn’t been seen for 14 years until just recently, when biologists found it living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. The discovery suggests that these mountains may be a safe haven for the rare frogs.

NASA Image

Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding in northern and central South America. Cooler-than-normal ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific have triggered La Niña conditions, which are thought to be causing the rain.

This article explores the incidence of fires in the Amazon over time and the reasons for those fires. “Since 1998, the number of fires occurring during the Amazon fire season nearly doubled. Smoke increased nearly 60 percent between 2000 to 2005.” Quoted from the NASA article.

Heavy rain in Peru has caused flooding and many landslides. Many homes, industrial facilities and crops have been lost.

The people of Peru mined hematite over 2000 years ago - predating the Inca Empire. It is believed that the hematite was used as a pigment for painting ceramics. Other speculated uses include: paint for adobe walls, pigment for coloring textiles, and body paint.

Exxon won court orders in Britain, the Netherlands and the Dutch Antilles that froze $12 billion of assets belonging to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Exxon’s actions are a response to Venezuela’s nationalization of an Exxon project - Exxon wants to assure payment should it win compensation from Venezuela.

Tungurahua is one of the most active volcanoes in South America and it has shown some significant activity this year. It has erupted intermittently for about the past ten years.

Llaima volcano in central Chile is erupting again. In January it had local residents evacuating and on Wednesday a one-mile-long lava flow was moving down its flank.

The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment is trying to understand the Amazon Rain Forest. So far it has produced more questions than answers.

Brazil will probably import less oil and gas when newly-discovered offshore fields go online. One is a 5+ billion barrel oil field, the other is a gas field with a great location - offshore from Rio de Janeiro.

USGS Map

About 8000 people who live near Galeras Volcano in southern Colombia were evacuated last week as the volcano began erupting.

Millions of tiny ocean plants are producing phytoplankton blooms near the Falkland Islands. The bloom is carried by the Malvinas (Falkland) Current, which passes near the Falkland Islands. This current is cold and loaded with nutrients which drive the bloom.

Scientists have discovered a fossilized skull of the largest rodent ever recorded in Uruguay. This rodent weighed a ton, was 3 meters long and lived between two and four million years ago.

A large ancient fortification was discovered in the Lobo Tahuantinsuyo area of Peru. Some claim that it could be the “Lost City of Paititi”.

Tungurahua Volcano, a stratovolcano in central Ecuador, continues to erupt. This volcano has a history of sudden strong explosions, lava flows, lahars and pyroclastic flows. A representative of the National Geophysics Institute says that all of these are possible with the current activity.

Chile’s Llaima Volcano erupted on New Year’s day, producing a heavy ash column. NASA has been able to track the sulfur dioxide plume released from the volcano with their Ozone Monitoring Satellite. It’s amazing how they can detect the chemistry of the air from space. Their image is shown at Earth Observatory.

Hundreds of people in Chile have fled the area around Llaima Volcano. It has been erupting ash and lava since Tuesday. Airports near the volcano have been closed and tourism in the area is discouraged.

What country is the home of this scene? It was painted by a student who lives not very far from this spectacular mountain site in the southern hemisphere. The buildings in the scene were generalized slightly by the artist. If you know this location, submit your answer here.

ADDED: I am impressed… in a little over 24 hours we have received over 100 correct answers!

A new gold deposit has been found in Colombia that some people think could double Colombian production by 2011 and be one of the ten largest deposits in the world.

Earth Observatory has an interesting satellite image of a phytoplankton bloom off the Atlantic coast of Argentina. The blue-green plume is a result of billions of tiny plants growing in the ocean surface waters. The Malvinas Current travels north along the continental shelf. Its motion pulls deep, cold nutrient rich waters up to the surface. These waters act as a natural fertilizer for the production of the phytoplankton.

In September, a meteorite impact in southern Peru caused a local panic when many people who visited the impact site became ill. Fortunately, the illnesses were not long-lasting and the 40-foot diameter crater has been declared a “National Heritage Site” by the regional government of Puno, Peru.

Agriculture, fire, drought, logging and livestock expansion could reduce the Amazon by 50% of its current size by 2030. Those activities themselves would release about 100 billion tons of CO₂.

This is a website that has an enormous number of photos to document flooding that occurred in Guyana during early 2005. It also has a lesser number of photos for flooding that occurred at later dates. This isn’t “news” but there are some interesting images on the site.

A new species of giant dinosaur has been discovered in 80 million-year-old, rocks of northern Patagonia. Futalognkosaurus dukei was a herbivorous dinosaur that reached lengths of up to 112 feet and is one of the three largest dinosaurs known. The specimen found is one of the most complete giant dinosaurs found to date.