After Cumbre Vieja split open and began erupting on September 19, 2021, a slow-moving wall of basaltic lava began bulldozing its way through populated parts of one of the Canary Islands. Lava flows have destroyed nearly 400 homes, covered dozens of kilometers of roads, and consumed farmland on the island of La Palma as they creep down the western flank of the volcanic island toward the ocean.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image of lava going through the communities of El Paraiso and Todoque on September 26, 2021. Though the inside of the lava flow was hot and molten, cooling of the surface left a dark crust that made the flow appear black in natural-color imagery. Observations of infrared wavelengths (second image) reveal the hottest parts of the flow.
Many of the white rectangular features near the coast are greenhouses. The dark green areas along the coast are crops, likely fields of bananas. The volcanic plume streaming toward the northeast contains a mixture of ash, sulfur dioxide, and other volcanic gases.
A lull in activity in the morning on September 27, 2021, indicated that the eruption might be winding down, but explosive activity resumed later in the day, according to updates from the Volcanology Institute of the Canary Islands (INVOLCAN). Experts from INVOLCAN have indicated that the current eruption could persist for weeks to months.
Cumbre Vieja last erupted 50 years ago. The most recent eruption in the Canary Islands happened in 2011, when an underwater vent on El Hierro came to life.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Adam Voiland.
"flow" - Google News
September 28, 2021 at 04:45AM
https://ift.tt/3CS6NTf
Lava Burns a Path Through La Palma - nasa.gov
"flow" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Sw6Z5O
https://ift.tt/2zNW3tO
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Lava Burns a Path Through La Palma - nasa.gov"
Post a Comment