Mt. Pinatubo 10th Anniversary Perspective (Stills)
This recent false color Landsat-7 image, from January 2001, shows Mt. Pinatubo as it stands today. The caldera is seen in the middle of the image, underneath clouds. Ten years after the blast, vegetation is re-growing on the slopes of the mountain (in green.) Streams of mud, called lahars, (resulting from ash from the eruption mixing with water- seen as the lighter sediment) continue to flow down the sides of the mountains, as well as channels of water (darker streams). However, as vegetation grows back, the ash becomes more stabilized and less likely to form the destructive lahars.
The tons of ash, seen here in great quantity on the western slope, mixed with heavy rainfall to create destructive streams of mud, capable of moving at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. This false color image was taken from the Spacebourne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) instrument onboard the Space Shuttle in April of 1994 and highlights the ash in purple.