Monday, January 26, 2009

Thar she (still) blows

SatNews:

Chaitén's Caldera Chugging Chunks Continuously

Chile’s Chaitén Volcano had been dormant for more than 9,000 years when it erupted in May 2008. In the months that followed, the volcano remained active, releasing plumes of steam and volcanic ash, coating local vegetation, clogging waterways, and inundating the nearby town of the same name.

Two versions of the image appear here: a close-up view of the caldera (top) and a view of the surrounding area (bottom). These false-color images include visible and infrared light. Vegetation is red, bare (possibly ash-covered) ground is brown, and water is deep blue. The plume from the volcano appears off-white, and it is thick enough to completely hide the land surface below.

3 comments:

Tammy said...

Ok..so it makes me worry more about Yellowstone. LOL!

Elizabeth Prata said...

Yah...Chaiten erupted after a 9000 year dormancy. It earned the newsphoto of the year. Then it fell off the radar but the town is dead and the volcano has never stopped erupting since the first one back in May...

Tammy said...

And the 10,000 mark gives the honor of being extinct. I guess we just never know...God has plans and we are not meant to understand them all.