Chile’s Chaiten volcano, which erupted spectacularly last year, spewed a vast cloud of ash on Thursday in what appeared to be a partial collapse of its cone.
Television footage showed a could of ash billowing into the sky over the town of Chaiten, which lies about six miles (10 km) from the crater.
Authorities evacuated about 160 people from the area. Most of the town’s 4,500 residents were evacuated last year after the volcano, dormant for thousands of years, erupted. The government is planning to relocate the town.
Hundreds of earthquakes have hit Yellowstone National Park, raising fears of a more powerful volcanic eruption.
The earthquake swarm, the biggest in more than 20 years, is being closely monitored by scientists and emergency authorities.
The series of small quakes included three last Friday which measured stronger than magnitude 3.0. The strongest since this latest swarm of quakes began on December 27 was 3.9.
No damage has yet been reported but scientists say this level of activity – there have been more than 500 tremors in the last week – is highly unusual.
A powerful earthquake has struck south-western Panama, close to the border with Costa Rica, says the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The quake was reported with a magnitude of 6.2 and happened at a depth of 48.2km (30 miles), monitors said.
The epicentre was close to the Pacific coast and 55km (35 miles) west of David, Panama’s third-largest city and home to 125,000 people.
Moscow: At least 12 people were killed in an earthquake jolting Russia’s North Caucasus region, media reported quoting the republic’s health minister Musa Akhmadov. More than 100 people have been hospitalised in Chechnya, Akhmadov said.
Earlier, the agency quoted Chechen deputy emergency situations minister Akhmed Dzhairkhanov as saying that five people died in Saturday’s earthquake. The quake measuring over 5.0 on the Richter scale hit Chechnya at about 1 pm.
(RTTNews) - At least 22 people were killed and over 100 others injured after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit China’s southwestern province of Sichuan on Saturday, said officials.
Officials said that the quake struck about 31 miles southeast of Panzhihua city in the southwestern Sichuan and added that the tremors were felt as far as Kunming, the capital of neighboring Yunnan province, located about 300 km away.
