29 January 2009
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
After a dormancy period of over 9,000 years, Chile’s Chaitén Volcano erupted in May 2008. During the months that followed, the volcano remained active, releasing plumes of steam and volcanic ash, damaging local vegetation, clogging waterways, and inundating the nearby town of Chaitén.
On 19 January 2009, an instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image of Chaitén Volcano. Two versions of the image appear here: a close-up view of the volcano’s vent (caldera) at top, and a view of the surrounding area, at bottom. These false-color images include visible light and infrared data. Vegetation is represented in red, ground is brown, and water is deep blue. The plume from the volcano appears off-white, and it is thick enough to completely conceal the land surface below.
The land surface south and southeast of the volcano varies in color from gray to brown, with only isolated patches of red. Close to the volcano, the darker brown colors probably indicate areas coated with volcanic ash or places where the vegetation was destroyed by earlier ash falls. Farther to the east and south, however, the light gray-brown color probably indicates naturally bare, alpine areas. Glaciers (light blue patches) are scattered among the valleys at the right side of the wide-area image. The meandering waterway between the volcanic summit and the coastal town of Chaitén is Río Blanco, and this river carried volcanic mudflows, into the town after the May 2008 eruption. Despite repeated inundations, the town’s grid-like layout remains visible.
References
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program, Chaitén Summary.
The Volcanism Blog, (2009, January 19), Dome collapse event at Chaitén.
Further Reading
NASA’s Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist