Ash from Calbuco eruption spreads across Argentina border

World Today

This view from Puerto Varas, southern Chile, shows a high column of ash and lava spewing from the Calbuco volcano, on April 23, 2015. AFP PHOTO/DAVID CORTES SEREY/AGENCIA UNOThis view from Puerto Varas, southern Chile, shows a high column of ash and lava spewing from the Calbuco volcano, on April 23, 2015. AFP PHOTO/DAVID CORTES SEREY/AGENCIA UNO

Volcanic ash has reached Argentina after twin blasts from the Calbuco volcano in southern Chile.

Roads and the main airport in Bariloche, a small Patagonian town about 62 miles northeast of the volcano, have been covered in dust and soot.

Authorities have cancelled school classes and flights.

Bariloche’s police chief Diego Gasparutti said the town’s border crossing with Chile had been closed after “a 5-centimetre (2 inch) accumulation of volcanic ash.”

Strong winds had also created thick fog, he added.

The Calbuco volcano erupted on Wednesday afternoon for the first time in more than four decades, sending a towering plume of ash more than 6 miles into the air.

Report by the Associated Press