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Villarrica, one of Chile's most active volcanoes, rises above a lake and town of the same name 470 miles south of Santiago. Villarrica is the westernmost of three large volcanoes that run perpendicular to the Andean mountain chain. Along with Quetrupillan and the Chilean part of Lanin, Villarrica is protected in Villarrica National Park.
The scene is usually tranquil, allowing guided ascents to Villarrica's summit, magnets for tourists from around the world. But all in Villarrica National Park is not as it seems. At 3 a.m. on March 3, 2015, Villarrica blew its top in a spectacular fire fountain. Its fit of temper was short-lived, but prompted evacuations of nearby communities and the establishment of a six-mile-radius exclusion zone. After the fire and lava subsided, volcanic mudflows, or lahars, followed. Scientists have been funded by the National Science Foundation to research what's called infrasound, the low-frequency and inaudible-to-human tones volcanoes produce. Some are akin to blood flowing through a human body.Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Jonathan Lewis
