Chile, Volcano Eruption | featured news

Dozens of flights were cancelled Sunday after an ash cloud from an erupting volcano in Chile drifted thousands of miles over the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Flights are returning to normal in major Argentine and Uruguayan airports, but ash from a Chilean volcano is now reaching Australia.

The Puyehue volcano in southern Chile erupted Saturday, sending a huge plume of smoke and ash into the sky and prompting officials to evacuate about 600 people living nearby. There were no reports of injuries. Authorities had put the area around the volcano on alert Saturday morning after a flurry of earthquakes, and the eruption began in the afternoon. The National Emergency Office said it recorded an average of 230 tremors an hour.