|
Santa
Ana
Volcano,
El
Salvador
On
October 1,
2005, El
Salvador’s
Santa Ana
Volcano,
also known
as the
Ilamatepec
Volcano,
erupted
for the
first time
since
1904. The
eruption
reportedly
shot out
car-sized
lava rocks
and a
flood of
boiling
mud and
water.
This
false-color
image was
made from
data
collected
by the Advanced
Spaceborne
Thermal
Emission
and
Reflection
Radiometer
(ASTER)
on
NASA’s Terra
satellite
on
February
3, 2001,
well
before the
2005
eruption.
The Santa
Ana
volcano
rises on
the left
side of
the image,
forming a
large
flat-topped
mound and
sports
several
crescent-like
craters at
its summit
and a
20-kilometer-long
system of
fissures.
A tiny
blue spot
in the
center of
the
inner-most
crater is
a crater
lake, the
likely
source of
the
boiling
water
flood.
Behind
Santa Ana
is a large
caldera
lake
inside the
Coatepeque
Caldera,
created
when a
series of
volcanoes
collapsed
in
explosive
eruptions
between
57,000 and
72,000
years ago.
In the
foreground
is El
Salvador’s
newest
volcano,
Izalco,
which
sprang up
in 1770
and
erupted
frequently
until
1966. The
young
volcano
isn’t
covered in
vegetation
(red in
this
image),
but
remains
black with
recent
lava
flows.
Santa Ana
is the
highest
point in
El
Salvador.
The
volcano is
2,381
meters
(7,812
feet)
above sea
level and
is 65
kilometers
(40 miles)
west of
the
country’s
capital,
San
Salvador. |
