Fires Spread Smoke over Buenos Aires: Natural Hazards

Smoke from fires set by farmers to clear land for livestock grazing in the floodplain of the Parana River northwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina, degraded local air quality and forced road closures due to poor visibility, according to news reports. This image of the fires (locations outlined in red) was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer modis.gsfc.nasa.gov (MODIS) on NASA's aqua.nasa.gov Aqua satellite on April 17, 2008. Smoke flows southeast over Buenos Aires and the muddy waters of the Rio de la Plata Estuary. According to a Bloomberg.com news article, Argentina's Interior Minister, Florencio Randazzo, attributed the dramatic fire activity to farmers needing new pastures for cattle that previously grazed on land now dedicated to soybean production.