Llaima Volcano
Thursday, 3. January 2008, 16:03:00
About 700 people were evacuated as the Llaima volcano erupted Wednesday, 2 January 2008, in southern Chile, rocking the area with explosions and spewing lava and ash. So far the 3,125 metres high Llaima, one of the most active among some 60 active volcanos in Chile, has not had a major blast since 1994, but last erupted in May 2007. Llaima Volcano is one of the largest and most active volcanoes in Chile, it has erupted some 60 times in recorded history. It is situated 82 km northeast of Temuco and 663 km southeast of Santiago, within the borders of Conguillío National Park. Llaima is a Mapuche word meaning "Blood Veins". 
The subduction zone along the South American west coast is with its length of 7,400 km the longest subduction zone and deep sea trench in the world. The subduction has given rise to the Andes. Here three different plates are being subducted beneath South America - the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate and the Antarctic Plate - with different velocities along the boundary with the South American Plate. It does therefor not, as one otherwise might have expected, form one long continental volcanic arc. The Andes has three volcanic zones marked a, b and c on the map. Active volcanic centres correlate with regions where the dip of the subduction zone is about 30°. Where the dip is shallow, 5-10°, there are no active volcanoes. 
The (second) map shows some of the major active volcanoes south of the Chilean capital Santiago, including the Llaima volcano.• http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Chiles_Llaima_volcano_erupts_in_smoke_and_flames_999.html
• http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080102/ap_on_sc/chile_volcano
• http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319417,00.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llaima
Scientic American runs a video showing the eruption at
http://www.sciam.com/video.cfm?id=405EC576-D108-E548-5C4B7DF634F69C0A
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