The approximately 4-kilometer-wide Dendi Caldera includes some of this silica-rich volcanic rock: the rim of the caldera, visible in this astronaut photograph, is mostly made of poorly consolidated ash erupted during the Tertiary Period (approximately 65–2 million years ago).
Formed during four explosive eruptions that took place between 300,000 and 90,000 years ago, the volcanic caldera is now home to human settlements and 17 younger volcanoes.
After its initial eruption on May 2, 2008, Chile’s Chaitén Volcano remained active in the days and weeks that followed, releasing a near-constant plume and blanketing the region in ash. This false-color image uses thermal radiation to make an image of the volcano and its surroundings. The hottest area in this picture is at the lava dome in the volcano’s caldera. The purple-black plume blowing northeast from the summit is much colder.
This natural-color image from the Landsat satellite on October 5, 2000, shows El Aguajito Caldera, Las Tres Vírgenes, and La Reforma Caldera on the Baja Peninsula.
Volcanic ash from earlier eruptions has settled onto the snowy landscape, leaving dark gray swaths. The ash stains are confined to the south of the Karymsky’s summit, one large stain fanning out toward the southwest, and another toward the east.