A week after it first began erupting, Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex continued to emit a steady stream of ash. This false-color satellite image shows the eruption’s ash plume on the morning of June 11, 2011. At the time, the Joint Air Force & Army Weather Information Network reported that the ash rose to an altitude of 23,000 feet (7,000 meters).
In this image, low-angled sunlight (10 days before the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere) illuminates the north side of the plume, while the south side is in deep shadow. The ash colum rises from a fissure about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of Puyehue Volcano. The high-altitude lakes to the west of the eruption site are bright blue (likely from ash suspended in the water) and partially covered by floating pumice, a type of volcanic rock permeated with gas bubbles. Ash-covered snow is gray, and vegetation is red. The image was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) aboard the Terra satellite.
Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
