Wikipedia
Chaitén is a Chilean town, commune and former capital of the Palena Province in Los Lagos Region. The town is located north of the mouth of Yelcho River, on the east coast of the Gulf of Corcovado. The town is strategically located close to the northern end of the Carretera Austral where the highway goes inland.
Chaitén is a volcanic caldera in diameter, west of the elongated ice-capped Michinmahuida volcano and northeast of the town of Chaitén, near the Gulf of Corcovado in southern Chile. The most recent eruptive phase of the volcano erupted on 2008. Originally, radiocarbon dating of older tephra from the volcano suggested that its last previous eruption was in 7420 BC ± 75 years. However, recent studies have found that the volcano is more active than thought. According to the Global Volcanism Program, its last eruption is 1640 ± 18 years.
The caldera rim reaches above sea level. Before the current eruption, it was mostly filled by a rhyolite obsidian lava dome that reached a height of , partly devoid of vegetation. Two small lakes occupied the caldera floor on the west and north sides of the lava dome.
The translucent grey obsidian which had erupted from the volcano was used by pre-Columbian cultures as a raw material for artifacts and has been found as far away as to the south and north, for example in Chan-Chan.