In early June 2011, Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcano erupted, spewing volcanic ash across the Southern Hemisphere, and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. The ash cloud reached a height of 12,000 meters, on 4 June. In late December 2011, activity at the volcano had declined, but volcanic ash and steam were still erupting from the fissure that opened several months earlier.
NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured a natural-color image (Fig. 1), on 23 December 2011. In the image, the active fissure lies northwest of the Puyehue caldera, and a plume emanates from the fissure toward the west and north. This image also shows snow on Puyehue’s surface, including the caldera. Since the volcanic ash regularly covers the land surface, the snow probably fell recently.
Reaching an altitude of 2,236 meters, Puyehue-Cordón Caulle is a stratovolcano, a steep-sloped, conical volcano composed of layers of ash, lava, and rocks, ejected through past eruptions. This volcano lies in the southern Andes.
EO-1 is one of NASA’s leading remote sensing satellites. It orbits Earth every 99 minutes, at an altitude of approximately 700 km. Its weight is 573 kg.
References
NASA’s Earth Observatory Image of the Day
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76810
EO-1 Website
http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov/new/general/imagery/intro.html
Wikipedia