GeoLog

Imaggeo on Mondays: Serene landscape, active volcano

Osorno Volcano — Chile by Lilli Freda, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Osorno Volcano — Chile by Lilli Freda, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

This image, captured in Chile by Lilli Freda from Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, depicts a cloudless sky, a calm blue lake (Llanquihué), and a picture-perfect mountain with a snow-covered top. But the serenity of the landscape is only apparent: the triangular structure in the background is in fact the very active and explosive Osorno volcano.

“Osorno is a 2652-m-high stratovolcano, one of the most active volcanoes of the southern Chilean Andes. During the past 14,000 years, explosive eruptions occurred frequently and produced pyroclastic flows and surges. Recorded historical eruptions have originated from both summit and flank vents producing basaltic and andesitic lava flows that have entered both Llanquihué and Todos los Santos lakes,” Freda explained.

There are 11 historical explosions recorded for Osorno between 1575 and 1869, when the last known eruption occurred.

Freda took this photo in 2004 during a field trip that followed the General Assembly of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior, held in Pucón, Chile, that year.

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Bárbara Ferreira was the Media and Communications Manager of the European Geosciences Union from 2011 to 2019. Bárbara has also worked as a science writer specialising in astrophysics and space sciences, producing articles for the European Space Agency and others on a freelance basis. She has a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge.


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