NASA MODIS Image of the Day: November 19, 2011 – Activity at Puyehue-Cordón Caulle and Chaiten volcanoes, Chile
More than five months after its initial explosive eruption, Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano continues to produce impressive plumes of ash.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite acquired this unusually cloud-free image on November 16, 2011.
A plume of ash and steam drifts about 100 kilometers southwest from the erupting vent. The mountains around the volcano and the plain to the east are coated in a layer of ash after many months of activity. Most of the ash is from the powerful early eruption. The first plumes flew high into the atmosphere and circled the globe, stopping air traffic from South America to New Zealand. Volcanic ash can clog and stall a jet engine. The eruption at Puyehue-Cordón Caulle is now a minor eruption, but the fine ash is still capable of interfering with local air travel warned the Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SERNAGEOMIN) on November 16. The eruption may also cause lahars, a flood and/or landslide of volcanic ash mixed with water from rain or melted snow. In this image, Puyehue-Cordón Caulle is marked by a large red hotspot, where the MODIS instrument sensors detected temperature higher than the background. Further south, another hotspot marks Chaitén, a caldera volcano which erupted violently on May 2, 2008. The ash fall and lahars significantly damaged the nearby town of Chaitén, while flooding deposited ash mud over a meter deep, making the town uninhabitable. This was the first known eruption of the volcano in historic times; the last eruption has been estimated to have occurred around 7400 BC.
