NASA: Volcan Ubinas - Peru
Free of vegetation, the gray and white
lava-covered peak of the Ubinas Volcano looks like it could be located on the
Moon or some other extraterrestrial body. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on
NASA’s EO-1 satellite captured this true-color image of the Peruvian volcano on
July 24, 2010.
The barren summit hints at recent volcanic
activity, and in fact, Ubinas is Peru’s most active volcano. Apart from venting
ash frequently, Ubinas has erupted many times since 1550. The last eruption
started on March 25, 2006. As a result of its frequent activity, the steeply
sloped peak is coated with lava. A canyon on the southern slope is evidence of
a collapse in the volcano’s past.
A small circular caldera crowns the volcano. A
little more than a kilometer across, the caldera is defined by walls that range
from 80 to 300 meters high. Dark-colored ash and tiny volcanic rocks (lapilli)
carpet the crater floor. An ash cone rises from the center of the crater,
casting a dark triangular shadow. Within the shadow of the ash cone lies a
white, funnel-shaped inner crater that is 200 meters deep.
Ubinas is one of many volcanoes that dot the
high desert plateau east of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. In the Central
Volcanic Zone in the Andes, mountains and volcanoes grow as the Nazca plate,
part of Earth’s crust under the southeast Pacific Ocean, sinks beneath the
South American plate. The pressure of the collision wrinkles the South American
plate, pushing the Andes Mountains up. As the material in the Nazca plate melts
deep in the Earth, some rises to the surface through weak areas in the South
American plate. Along with South America’s other volcanoes, Ubinas is part of
the Pacific Ring of Fire, a chain of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean that
formed because of tectonic activity.
References
Global Volcanism Program. (2010). Ubinas.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Accessed August 24, 2010.
Thouret, J.C., Rivera, M., Wörner, G., Gerbe,
M.C., Finizola, A., Fornari, M., and Gonzales, K. (2005, April 21). Ubinas: the
evolution of the historically most active volcano in southern Peru. Bulletin of
Volcanology, 67 (6). 557-589.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon,
using ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
Instrument(s):
EO-1 – ALI
A faint
white plume rose from the summit of the Ubinas Volcano on May 8, 2006, when the
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on
NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. Peru’s most active volcano, Ubinas
forced evacuations on April 21, after a series of explosions sent ash, gas, and
lava fragments more than three kilometers into the air, said the U.S.
Geological Survey in its weekly Volcanic Activity Report. The fumes caused
respiratory problems, and livestock fell ill or died after eating ash-coated
grass.
2015: Año de la Vida consagrada