Beginning on September 6, 2010, Chile’s ice-covered Planchón-Peteroa Volcano has erupted a series of small ash and gas clouds. The chilean National Service of Geology and Mining (Sernageomin) reported that the eruptions were probably phreatomagmatic: caused by the interaction of water with magma inside the volcano.
This natural-color satellite image was acquired on September 18, 2010, by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard Earth Observing-1 (EO-1). A dark volcanic plume trails at least 22 kilometers (14 miles) southeast & into Argentina from the Peteroa summit (the currently active crater). Fallen ash colors the snow underneath the plume brown.
References & Resources
- Global Volcanism Program. (n.d.). Planchón-Peteroa. Accessed September 21, 2010.
- Sernageomin (2010, September 8). Sernageomin Informa Acerca del Volcán Planchón. Accessed September 21, 2010.
- The Volcanism Blog. (2010, September 14). More steam, less ash reported as Planchón-Peteroa quietens. Accessed September 21, 2010.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Robert Simmon.












