Eruption is the first in 9,000 years for the volcano in southern Chile

Chilean officials ordered the total evacuation of Chaiten, a small provincial capital in an area of lakes and glacier-carved fjords just six miles from the roiling cloud. Also emptied was the soot-coated border town of Futaleufu, about 75 miles from the volcano. More than 4,000 people were evacuated over the weekend and 350 more headed out Tuesday

The Chaiten volcano has thrown ash miles into the Andean sky forcing thousands to evacuate the area and polluting a huge stretch of the South American continent. A column of ash climbed into the stratosphere and stretched for hundreds of miles over Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean.. Schools and a regional airport were also ordered to closed.

Lava was rising within this crater but has not yet spilled over, said Luis Lara, another vulcanologist with the government's Geology and Mining Service.

The few remaining residents of Chaiten were transferred to two Navy ships on Tuesday, a day after President Michelle Bachelet visited the town, pledging financial help for people whose homes were damaged or livestock died after foraging on ash-covered grass.