Mount Osorno dominates the landscape
Osorno Volcano is a 2,652-metre tall conical stratovolcano in Los Lagos Region of Chile. It stands on the southeastern shore of Llanquihue Lake, and also towers over Todos los Santos Lake. Osorno is noted for its similar appearance to Mount Fuji. Osorno is one of the many active volcanoes of the southern Chilean Andes, with 11 historical eruptions recorded between 1575 and 1869. Osorno volcano eruptions: 1869, 1855, 1851, 1837, 1834-35, 1790-91, 1765, 1719, 1644(?), 1640(?), 1575(?), 1310
The basalt and andesite lava flows generated during these eruptions reached both Llanquihue and Todos los Santos Lakes. The upper slopes of the volcano are almost entirely covered in glaciers despite its very modest altitude and latitude, sustained by the substantial snowfall in the very moist maritime climate of the region. Osorno sits on top of a 250,000-year-old eroded stratovolcano, La Picada, with a 6-km-wide caldera.
Many eruptions have occurred from both summit and flank vents and fissures, the latter mostly on the west and SW sides. While its historic activity was dominantly effusive, many explosive eruptions which generated pyroclastic flows and surges have been identified to have occurred during the past 14,000 years. While visiting Ancud, Chiloé in 1835, scientist Charles Darwin witnessed one such event.
There is a ski centre, which has two chairlifts, a fully-equipped lodge and a restaurant. You can also visit in the off-season as we did and enjoy the panoramic view of Lake Llanquihue
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Our trip today started with a 45 minute cruise on Lago de los Santos with Osorno rising above the woods beyond. Then en route to the mountain itself, a stop at Petruche Falls, which turned out as nothing to see- as the walkway had been damaged by flooding some months ago and was being repaired, hence one could not actually see the falls. But we had seen them when we were in the area before
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The road climbs up Osorno to a ski station about half way up the mountain. From here you can take a ski lift further up, or just wander at the ski station. We opted for the latter, and picked our way over the loose ash that had blown in from the continuing eruption of Calbuco, which we could see continuing to simmer in the distance. And the roadsides were still covered in ash.
Wired 30 Apr 2015. Calbuco in Chile has spent the last few days fairly quiet, pumping out a small steam-and-ash plume. However, today the volcano produced the third significant explosive eruption since Calbuco came back to life last week. This explosion appears to be less vigorous than the first two eruptions, but the 5-kilometer-tall dark grey ash plume is likely to dump more ash and volcanic debris over an area already attempting to recover from the previous eruptions. The status update this morning from the SERNAGEOMIN may have foreshadowed today’s explosion as they mention that volcanic tremor (usually associated with magma moving under the volcano) was much elevated compared to the last few days. The tremor really picked up around 1:09 pm local time, only about 10-15 minutes before the eruption began, according to the SERNAGEOMIN report on today’s explosion. Today’s eruption also produced new lahars on the slopes of Calbuco
The first two eruptions emitted ~210 million cubic meters of ash and volcanic debris. That may sound like a lot, but that’s only about 0.21 cubic kilometres. This means the eruption was much smaller (so far) than the eruptions at Chaiten in 2008 and Puyehue-Cordon Caulle in 2011. However, 0.21 cubic kilometres is still enough to wreak havoc on areas for livestock/agriculture, people’s roofs and sediment in river channels. Right now, over 6,000 people have been evacuated due to the ash and mudflow hazards — and there has been some criticism on how the evacuations have unfolded. The fish farming industry around Puerto Montt has also reported heavy losses, possibly as much 21 million fish, due to the ash fall.
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Lunch was at a small restaurant overlooking, yes that's correct, Osorno. One has to admit that the "plum pudding" effect of the snow covered volcano is quite magical.
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And from our lunch stop there was a brief halt at Puerto Varas, where we took a look into the German Church. Again we had stayed in Puerto Varas when we drove the Carreterra Austral in 2007.
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