At a Glance
- Guatemala's Volcan de Fuego erupted Sunday, and satellites were able to capture the powerful explosion.
- Over two dozen people were killed from the blast and officials fear that number will rise.
Guatemala's Volcan de Fuego, or "Volcano of Fire," erupted violently Sunday, and its clear appearance on satellite imagery told the tale of how dramatic it really was.
Sunday's explosion sent a large plume of ash and molten rock into the air, killing more than two dozen people. Nearby villages were blanketed in ash, while lava flows reaching temperatures of 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (705 degrees Celsius) spewed down the mountainside.
In addition to those killed, another 20 people were injured. However, officials fear both the number of deaths and injured will rise with so many people still unaccounted for.
“Not everyone was able to get out. I think they ended up buried,” Consuelo Hernandez, a resident of the village of El Rodeo, told the newspaper Diario de Centroamerica.
“Where we saw the lava fall, we ran to a hillside” to escape, she added.
Over 3,000 people fled their homes and an estimated 1.7 million people were affected by the eruption. The Volcan de Fuego is one of Central America's most active volcanoes.
This isn't the first time the volcano's eruptions have been seen from in orbit. In fact, it's not even the first time in 2018. NASA captured photos of a late-January eruption, which shot an ash plume 21,000 feet above sea level.