January 21st, 2013 Category: Image of the day, Volcanoes

Chile – January 20th, 2013

A cloud of what appears to be ash from a volcanic eruption blows westward over Chile, towards the Pacific Ocean. The ash appears to be emanating from one of the four different volcanoes that constitute the volcanic group known as the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex: the Cordillera Nevada caldera, the Pliocene Mencheca volcano, Cordón Caulle fissure vents and the Puyehue stratovolcano. However, reports of volcanic activity in Chile indicate that activity is currently limited to the Copahue and Villarrica volcanoes, meaning that the cloud in this image may be the result of other phenomena, such as wildfires.

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March 16th, 2012 Category: Volcanoes

Chile and Argentina - March 7th, 2012

Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano could be seen releasing ash and steam at the end of the first week of March, 2012. The Chilean National Service of Geology and Mining reported that the plume was 1.2 kilometers (3,900 feet) high, and extended 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the active vent.

Other effects of the eruption can also be observed. Immediately to the east of the volcanic complex is a dark brown area, thick with fallen ash fall that has killed much of the vegetation. Further east are several bright turquoise lakes whose milky color is caused by fine ash suspended in the water. Some lakes show evidence of floating ash and pumice.

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February 22nd, 2012 Category: Phytoplankton, Volcanoes

Argentina - January 1st, 2012

A blue phytoplankton bloom can be observed off the coast of Argentina, southeast of the Valdés Peninsula, at the bottom of this image. Also visible near the peninsula is a plume of dust, most likely ash from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano. The plume is blowing southeastward, between Bahía Blanca and the Valdés Peninsula, and passes over the phytoplankton bloom.

The bloom developed in an area known as the Brazil-Falklands Confluence, where the warm, salty waters of the subtropical Brazil Current flow south and meet the colder, fresher waters brought north from the Southern Ocean by the Falklands (Malvinas) Current. The collision of these currents pulls nutrients up from the deep ocean. This, in combination with strong summer sun, allows a growth spurt for the microscopic, floating plants-phytoplankton-that form the center of the ocean food web.

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February 10th, 2012 Category: Image of the day, Volcanoes

Chile and Argentina - February 6th, 2012

Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano releases ash and steam once again in early February. Here, the ash plume can be seen blowing to the east-northeast, over Argentina. Misleadingly called by media the Puyehue eruption, the eruption is actually from the Cordon Caulle fissure.

The eruption began over eight months ago, in the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex, on June 4, 2011, although increased seismic activity had been reported even earlier, on April 27, 2011. The ash cloud from the first period of eruptions was blown across cities all around the Southern hemisphere, including Bariloche, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Stanley, Porto Alegre, Cape Town, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington and Auckland, forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of international and domestic flights and causing travel chaos.

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