Perceptions of past and future eruptions of Puyehue-Cordón Caulle (Southern Chile): connecting neighbourhood, social cohesion and disaster memory in volcanic risk research

Abstract

As in 1921-1922 and 1960, a new eruption occurred in the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex (PCCVC) in 2011-2012, having dramatic transboundary impacts in northern Patagonia. Given its frequent and small-to-moderate eruptions, the PCCVC ranks 5th out of 90 in the specific threat ranking of Chilean active volcanoes. Therefore, understanding the importance of the risk perceptions of the nearby community can be critical for risk management and decision making during future eruptions. This article examines the narratives of heterogeneous inhabitants of rural settlements in Puyehue that share the influence zone of the PCCVC, which were selected through purposive and chain sampling for in-depth interviews. We analyse the role of social cohesion, disaster memory, and uncertainties as factors that influence the construction of people's perceptions of volcanic risk. The results highlight the facts behind natural hazards and their physical dimensions, but take into account the subjectivity of human perceptions of eruptions, which profoundly influence the hermeneutics of volcanic processes and thus the decision-making of communities. Understanding the connections between these factors thus becomes valuable and necessary to detect the elements of the social system involved in creating and reducing disaster risk in the Southern Andes.

Keywords

• cordón caulle
• volcanic risk perceptions
• rural livelihoods
• crisis response
• solidarity
• ethnovolcanology