Earth observations taken during the STS-77 mission

STS077-740-029 (19-29 May 1996) --- In recent years, the most active peak in the High Altiplano of the central Andes Mountains has been Lascar, in northern Chile - featured in this 70mm frame. North is to the left in this picture. Lascar?s largest recent eruption was in April, 1993. The STS-55 crew photographed large dust plumes carrying the newly-deposited ash about one week after the eruption. Since then, astronauts have been closely monitoring Lascar, which remains active. This crew noticed and photographed Lascar?s plume, which is shown here as a steam plume rising from Lascar?s central summit crater. This level of activity is typical. This view also shows the extent of weathering as determined by the surface color of the 1993 flow from the crater. The flow traveled down the valley which is to the left (north) and then down (west) from the summit of this image. In earlier views the flow was a light gray, almost white feature in the valley. Today, the flow is close to the red-brown color of the surrounding rock.