Chaitén (/tʃaɪˈtɛn/, chy-TEN) is a Chilean town, commune and former capital of the Palena Province in Los Lagos Region. The town is north of the mouth of Yelcho River, on the east coast of the Gulf of Corcovado. The town is strategically close to the northern end of the Carretera Austral, where the highway goes inland. The Desertores Islands are part of the commune.
Chaitén is a volcanic caldera 3 kilometres (2 mi) in diameter, 17 kilometres (11 mi) west of the elongated ice-capped Michinmahuida volcano and 10 kilometres (6 mi) 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 was in 2011.
The caldera rim reaches 1,122 metres (3,681 ft) above sea level. Before the current eruption, it was mostly filled by a rhyolite obsidian lava dome that reached a height of 962 metres (3,156 ft), partly devoid of vegetation. Two small lakes occupied the caldera floor on the west and north sides of the lava dome.
Desertores Islands are a group of islands in the Sea of Chiloé, between Chiloé Island and the mainland of Chile. They are the easternmost islands of the Chiloé Archipelago, and are administered as part of the Chaitén commune, in the Palena Province, unlike the rest of the Archipelago, which forms Chiloé Province. The six main islands are Auten, Chuit, Chulin, Imerquiña, Nayahue and Talcan, with Talcan, the biggest and easternmost of the Desertores Islands, close to the mainland. There are several smaller islands in the archipelago. The islands are home to small, isolated communities that rely primarily on fishing and subsistence agriculture.