Esri News Feed

Monday, May 19, 2008

Cool Geo-Pic: Chile's Chaiten Volcano Erupts


Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Observatory:

Two points that amaze me. The first, this supposed dominant volcano last erupted several millennia BC. The second, the ash plume flow across the entire South American continent to the Atlantic Ocean.

Large Images:
True color (3.85 MB jpg)
Infrared (5.25 MB jpg)

Quick Cut & Paste Description:
" Three days after its surprise eruption on May 2, the Chaitén volcano of southern Chile was still pumping out dense clouds of ash. The plume stretches east from the peak in this pair of images, taken on May 5, 2008, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. ....

" The eruption that started on May 2 was unexpected because Chaitén was thought to have been dormant. Radiocarbon dating of the last lava flow from the volcano suggests that Chaitén last erupted in 7420 BC, plus or minus 75 years, says the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program...."

Full Story at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18020

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