The eye of Mordor
May 8, 2008 6:53 AM   Subscribe

Six days ago, the Chaitén volcano in Chile began a surprise eruption. So far, more than 8000 people have been evacuated, and NASA has tracked the results from space. Even more stunning however, are the images that occurred when a thunderstorm collided with the volcanic plume.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll (58 comments total) 54 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is what happens when the sky-god gets jealous of the fire-god's sacrificial virgins.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 6:58 AM on May 8, 2008 [2 favorites]


Mordor!
posted by oddman at 7:01 AM on May 8, 2008 [3 favorites]


Whoa! Does anyone know where I can find hi-res photos of that storm?
posted by danb at 7:13 AM on May 8, 2008 [1 favorite]


That's not a thunderstorm colliding with a volcanic plume! It's a volcanic plume generating a 'dirty thunderstorm'!
posted by steef at 7:15 AM on May 8, 2008 [2 favorites]


the alternate ending of Joe vs. the volcano is more spectacular than the one they left in the film.

(seconds hi-rez requests)
posted by Busithoth at 7:15 AM on May 8, 2008


These are by far the most amazing weather / volcano photos I have ever seen.
posted by geeky at 7:16 AM on May 8, 2008


Here is a pretty amazing picture of the eruption. I remember passing this volcano on my travels.
posted by rongorongo at 7:17 AM on May 8, 2008


Flagged as holy shit.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:24 AM on May 8, 2008


is it catnarok already?
posted by darkripper at 7:28 AM on May 8, 2008 [2 favorites]


Wowsers.
posted by Jody Tresidder at 7:28 AM on May 8, 2008


Wow. Photos 7 and 12 in that thunderstorm-meets-volcano link are just. wow.
posted by mediareport at 7:28 AM on May 8, 2008


I ran into a melange of these photos last night. Good lord. I didn't know what I had stumbled on.
Here it is.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:30 AM on May 8, 2008


Fantastic. I saw #11 elsewhere, but it's great to see a more complete collection. Here's a slightly more hi-res image from Flickr, but it's also got more noise, unfortunately.
posted by echo target at 7:31 AM on May 8, 2008


great find...thanks!
posted by HuronBob at 7:31 AM on May 8, 2008


darkripper, that link would be perfect if only the kitties where hacking flaming hairballs at one another.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:33 AM on May 8, 2008


And you wonder what made ancient civilizations believe in all-powerful gods?
posted by Pollomacho at 7:39 AM on May 8, 2008


Mom!
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:46 AM on May 8, 2008 [4 favorites]


Same pictures as Kronos_to_Earth's, but with discussion of the processes at work. More here.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:54 AM on May 8, 2008 [3 favorites]


What is clear is that volcanic lightning is dangerous.

You don't say!
posted by Sys Rq at 7:57 AM on May 8, 2008


fist in the air metal bear
posted by concreteforest at 8:12 AM on May 8, 2008


Note the clear presence of a vast demonic face in number 8.
posted by jamjam at 8:27 AM on May 8, 2008


"It's a volcanic plume generating a 'dirty thunderstorm'!"

Isn't it ionic? Don'tcha think? A little too ionic, and yeah I really do think...
posted by Eideteker at 8:32 AM on May 8, 2008 [2 favorites]


If only there were a 60 foot T-rex in frame -- that would be awesome!!
posted by LordSludge at 8:37 AM on May 8, 2008


I know what I'm having airbrushed on my conversion van.
posted by klangklangston at 8:37 AM on May 8, 2008 [2 favorites]


Jesus... fantastic, thanks for posting. Beautiful.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 8:50 AM on May 8, 2008


Sackcloth and ashes folks. It's the Seventh Seal.

I'm hearing Dan Aykroyd in Ghost Busters qupting from the Book of Revelations in my head right now...
posted by Nick Verstayne at 8:54 AM on May 8, 2008


quoting, even.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 8:54 AM on May 8, 2008


Johnson: “You can’t evacuate people. I mean, you can if you want but that’s not what you want to say here.
Copy Editor: “A building can be evacuated. To evacuate a person is to give that person an enema.


Sorry, I just started watching Season 5 of The Wire and now "evacuated" stands out.

Great links here, though.
posted by Extopalopaketle at 9:01 AM on May 8, 2008 [1 favorite]


We need hi-res photos right now. My desktop screams for this Götterdämmerung.

Thanks for the appropriate LOTR headline submitter.
posted by Ber at 9:14 AM on May 8, 2008


Very interesting
Very cool pictures

I definitely does look like the eruption is at least providing a pathway for the lightening.
posted by caddis at 9:16 AM on May 8, 2008



Any idea why there is blue lightning in some of the photos? They are extraordinary.
posted by Maias at 9:28 AM on May 8, 2008


Thank you for posting this. I considered posting something about the eruption, but I couldn't seem to stop looking for YET MORE AMAZING PICTURES and the post would have had 10 million links. You found the perfect links and knew when to stop!
posted by rtha at 9:45 AM on May 8, 2008


See, these are the kinds of things that make me aspire to doing more with my photography hobby. I would love to take a picture like this, which people can stare at in wonder and be awed at the majesty of what our world can produce.

On the other hand, that would mean that I had to be somewhere near this kind of event. And let's be honest: Fuck that shit.
posted by quin at 9:46 AM on May 8, 2008 [6 favorites]


From one of the links: "What is clear is that volcanic lightning is dangerous." Well, that's all I needed.
posted by boo_radley at 9:53 AM on May 8, 2008


Another vote for "please let me know when this hits widescreen desktop wallpaper size", as I yearn.
posted by thanotopsis at 10:40 AM on May 8, 2008


Volcanoes are cool. My desktop background (self link, natch) is a shot I took in Hawaii, a trip hugely enhanced by the helpful folks in AskMetafilter. I recently blogged about Kilauea's most recent (and ongoing) activity.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:53 AM on May 8, 2008


Stuff like this is how mythology happens, isn't it?

The earth groaned beneath him, and the heat and blaze from both of them was on the dark-faced sea, from the thunder and lightning of Zeus and from the flame of the monster, from his blazing bolts and from the scorch and breath of his stormwinds, and all the ground and the sky and the sea boiled, and towering waves were tossing and beating all up and down the promontories in the wind of these immortals, and a great shaking of the earth came on, and Haides, lord over the perished dead, trembled...

(from here)
posted by cmyk at 11:54 AM on May 8, 2008 [1 favorite]


I'm starting to think that Chile has the lowest number of megapixel cameras per capita in the world. The greatest eruption in years, and the pictures are shite.
posted by crapmatic at 11:58 AM on May 8, 2008


If I took any of those lightning/volcano pictures, I'd be damn sure to hand out nothing but thumbnails until I got a big-ass cheque.
posted by anthill at 12:10 PM on May 8, 2008


When I look at these, I see the beginning of the world for some reason. I feel like we'll be reading reports of giant walking lava monsters born from fire and electricity.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:12 PM on May 8, 2008


Dude, those are totally 'shopped.
posted by kcds at 12:47 PM on May 8, 2008


Yeah, shopped.

I can tell by the pixels
posted by Skorgu at 1:11 PM on May 8, 2008


Does anyone else hear Stravinski's Monster Dance from The Firebird when looking at these pics? How about Night on Bald Mountain?
posted by Araucaria at 1:16 PM on May 8, 2008


In the words of Bob Fossil: Holy shit sauce!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:27 PM on May 8, 2008


In picture #8 of the gallery it kind of looks like Satan is coming out of the ash to kick some ass.
posted by bowmaniac at 1:55 PM on May 8, 2008


cue Eddie Van Halen for maximum awesomeness
posted by TheCoug at 2:00 PM on May 8, 2008


Wow.
posted by Artw at 3:01 PM on May 8, 2008


It's just so awesome when the gods are angry.
posted by Wavelet at 3:20 PM on May 8, 2008


Love it. We are nothing really.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 3:30 PM on May 8, 2008


Let's get back to these guys who're saying it's all shopped. Is it really?
posted by Faze at 3:53 PM on May 8, 2008


Don't care if it is 'shopped, I still want it as my desktop background.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:44 PM on May 8, 2008


The guys who say it is shopped are hosers.
posted by caddis at 6:18 PM on May 8, 2008


This post is too much metal for one hand!

\mm/
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:26 PM on May 8, 2008 [1 favorite]


I WANT A BURRITO

BURRITO WILL SATISFY ME

DON'T PUT RICE IN IT WTF IS THAT SHIT
posted by dirigibleman at 9:29 PM on May 8, 2008


In case you haven't seen it yet, Reuters has video footage of the eruption as well as the aftermath.
posted by msaleem at 2:12 AM on May 9, 2008


anyone find any larger images of this?
posted by hellslinger at 3:09 PM on May 9, 2008


Truly stunning.
posted by deborah at 8:46 PM on June 4, 2008


anyone find any larger images of this?

YES
posted by anthill at 3:15 PM on June 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


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