page_title: Villarrica (volcano)
section_title: 1963 and 1964 eruptions
hierarchical_section_title: Villarrica (volcano) / Eruptive history / 1963 and 1964 eruptions
caption_attribution_description: English: An aerial view of the Villarrica Volcano in Chile.
context_page_description: Villarrica is one of Chile's most active volcanoes, rising above the lake and town of the same name, 750 km south of Santiago. It is also known as Rucapillán, a Mapuche word meaning "devil's house". It is the westernmost of three large stratovolcanoes that trend NW-SW obliquely perpendicular to the Andean chain along the Mocha-Villarrica Fault Zone, along with Quetrupillán and the Chilean portion of Lanín, are protected within Villarrica National Park. Guided ascents are popular during summer months.
  Villarrica, with its lava of basaltic-andesitic composition, is one of a small number worldwide known to have an active lava lake within its crater. The volcano usually generates strombolian eruptions with ejection of incandescent pyroclasts and lava flows. Rainfall plus melted snow and glacier ice can cause massive lahars, such as during the eruptions of 1964 and 1971.
  Villarrica is one of 9 volcanoes currently monitored by the Deep Earth Carbon Degassing Project. The project is collecting data on the carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide emission rates from subaerial volcanoes.
context_section_description: The volcano resumed eruptive activity on March 8, 1963. On March 12 a flank vent some 250 metres below the summit begun to pour lava that ended up making a 1000 m long and 150-meter broad lava flow. The lava flow had stopped by March 19. Concurrently with this the summit crater continued its strombolian eruption. Explosive eruptions begun once again on May 2, 1963, and the eruption had definitely turned effusive by May 21. The last consequences of this cycle of eruptions were lahars that flowed down the volcano on May 24.
  In the two last weeks of February 1964, Villarrica produced small, violent lava effusions and tremors. On 2 March, at 2:45 am, it began a strombolian eruption, and residents of Coñaripe, a wood-logging town, fled to the surrounding hills. At some point, the inhabitants of Coñaripe decided to return to their houses in search of shelter from the heavy rainfall. At midnight a new lava flow advanced downhill melting snow and ice triggering five lahars. Melting snow and ice from the Pichillancahue-Turbio Glacier combined with heavy rainfall to produce several lahars. This situation caught Coñaripe residents unprepared when one of the lahars overwhelmed the town killing 27 residents. The hamlet of Chaillupén was also destroyed by the lahar meaning 30 houses were destroyed, however, no human lives were lost. Other lahars that flowed north destroyed various bridges between Villarrica and Pucón before entering Villarrica Lake. The sudden inflow of lahars into Villarrica Lake caused the water level to rise, flooding some low-lying pastures.
  Some Mapuches blamed settlers for the disaster claiming they had provoked it by cursing the  town of Coñaripe. Such view reflect the belief that nature was "allied with the Indians".
caption: Aerial view of Mount Villarrica
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