Before we get too far, I wanted to make sure that folks understand that I'm just making educated conjectures on the nature of the eruptions I read about and by no means do I have any extra insight over those scientists on the ground at the eruption. I have a very limited set of data to examine - whatever the media reports - so I am just speculating based on what I know about the eruption style, volcano in question and whatever other variables might come into play. So, please, don't think that I know exactly what is going on or what will happen better than the scientists tackling the volcano firsthand.
That being said, I might not be a big fan of Donald Rumsfeld, but he does divide things up nicely when it comes to assessing a situation, so here we go.
For Volcan Chaiten:
Known knowns: The volcano ...
