The Calbuco volcanic eruption: Communicating a natural disaster through social media
- Dr. Janine Krippner On the afternoon of the 22 nd of April I was working on my PhD research and I distracted myself for a second to check twitter (which is all volcano and remote sensing tweets, so it counts as work for a volcanologist, right?). SERNAGEOMIN had just posted that Calbuco volcano was now on Red Alert (from green) and incredible photos and videos of the ash column exploded onto the internet. Social media gave me a window, not only into the volcanic eruption, but into the lives of those who were affected. (Translations are indicated in italics, please excuse any mistakes, I rely on the internet for help.) To be honest I hadn’t even heard of Calbuco volcano before this moment: #VolcánCalbuco pasa desde este momento a alerta Roja. 22 de abril de 2015: 18: 10 horas. pic.twitter.com/JEAEuiXDep — Sernageomin (Chile) (@Sernageomin) April 22, 2015 (#VolcánCalbuco now on Red Alert. April 22, 2015: 18:10 hours.) That short distraction turned into hours on the