Environmental impact of the 2011 Puyehue eruption on the Patagonia meseta in Argentina

INBAR, M; HALLER, MJ; RISSO, C

Madeira

Taller; 1st International Workshop on Volcano Geology; 2014

IAVCEI

The June 2011 eruption of the Puyehue volcano in the southern Andes volcanic zone of Chile affected an area of more than 1000 km radius to the east in the Argentine Patagonic meseta. Thickness of ash ranged from 40 cm in the andean region to less than one mm in the Atlantic coast zone. Wind storms reactivated the ash deposits from the dry soils in the semi arid environment more than six months after the eruption. In order to assess the impact of the eruption on the physical and human environment a terrain survey was conducted in October 2011 in the Chubut province from the coast to the Andean mountains.