GeoLog

Chile

Imaggeo on Mondays: The mirror of the volcano

Imaggeo on Mondays: The mirror of the volcano

Lascar volcano is located in the Antofagasta Region of Chile. This stratovolcano (a conical volcano built up over time through successive eruptions of lava, tephra and ash) of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes is the most active volcano of the region, with a height of 5.592 m (18,34 ft). The last phase of eruptive activity before this photo was taken was on October 30, 2015, which produced an ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Dust devil sighting in the Atacama Desert

Imaggeo on Mondays: Dust devil sighting in the Atacama Desert

Dust devils are like miniature tornadoes, they form when a pocket of hot air near the surface moves fast upward and meets cooler air above it. As the air rapidly rises, the column of hot air is stretched vertically, thereby moving mass closer to the axis of rotation, which causes intensification of the spinning effect by conservation of angular momentum. In the Atacama Desert [in Chile] they are r ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Cordillera de la Sal

Imaggeo on Mondays: Cordillera de la Sal

The photograph shows the Valle de la Luna, part of the amazing Cordillera de la Sal mountain range in northern Chile. Rising only 200 metres above the basin of the Salar de Atacama salt flat, the ridges of the Cordillera de la Sal represent a strongly folded sequence of clastic sediments and evapourites (salt can be seen in the left portion of the image), with interspersed volcanic material. This ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Chilean relics of Earth’s past

Imaggeo on Mondays: Chilean relics of Earth’s past

As Earth’s environment changes, it leaves behind clues used by scientists to paint portraits of the past: scorched timber, water-weathered shores, hardened lava flows. Chile’s Conguillío National Park is teeming with these kind of geologic artifacts; some are only a few years old while others have existed for more than 30 million years. The photographer Anita Di Chiara, a researcher at Lancaster U ...[Read More]