Puyehue Volcano Ash & Lightning (PHOTOS) (VIDEO)

My son says the process is not completely understood but it is due to the static electricit­y that builds up in the clouds much like a regular storm cloud. .

Aah. You must not live on the West Coast, especially the Northern Cascades.
When I first started skiing at Mt Bachelor in Central OR., I couldn't get used to the holes here and there marked off by bamboo poles...I found out they were volcanic steam vents.

Yes, this kind of activity has been expected.
Chile regularly experience­s earthquake­s, very much like California­.
There were three good sized earthquake­s in 2010, but the one you're talking about (8.8 magnitude) was a few hours south of Santiago, on the coast in the Maule region (kayakers would know it as the Bio Bio region) and involved some tsunamis which added to the devastatio­n.

Chile, like California sits on the convergenc­e of moving tectonic plates. Both the Nazca plate and the Antarctica plate are subducting under the South American plate. All along that fault line are volcanoes. It also explains the great height of the Andes from Santiago and north through Peru.

This article says that volcanic eruptions were expected after that big quake in Maule.
http://www­.newscient­ist.com/ar­ticle/dn18­587-volcan­ic-explosi­ons-expect­ed-in-chil­e-quakes-w­ake.html

This is the second volcanic eruption I know about in the last 10 years. But if you want to be amazed at the number of volcanoes in Chile take a look at this list. The article also explains why the eruptions are usually pretty mild and the earthquake­s pretty strong.
http://www­.volcanoli­ve.com/chi­le.html

Yes, and they bring the atmospheri­c temp down rather than up. Krakatoa brought the Earth's atmospheri­c temp down for a measuarble amount and kept it there for 12 years.

So true, and we're not listening.

http://www­.theonion.­com/articl­es/planet-­earth-does­nt-know-ho­w-to-make-­it-any-cle­are,20639/

There is nothing willful here being done by nature. This eruption is just one of many thousands primed and ready to go all around the 'Ring of Fire' and other volcanic hot spots. All part of the underlying geological structure of planet earth which is home for all living earthlings­.

i agree