But the thick white layer covering hundreds of square miles was actually volcanic ash and not an early snowfall.
Thousands of tons of toxic white ash spewed by the volcano over a five-day period fell to the ground downwind, piling up as deep as 5 feet (1.5 metres) in some places.
The image to the right was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor orbiting on NASA’s Terra Satellite on May 6.
When the spacecraft passed over southern South America at 3:15 p.m. Argentina time, the long plume of ash from Chaitén was clearly visible blowing hundreds of miles to the east over Patagonia and the coastal waters of Argentina.
The thick layer of ash that blanketed areas around the volcano and Argentina’s Chubut province appear a pale gray-beige color in contrast to the normally brown land surface at this time of year.
