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Exercise 4: The route back to civilisation 
The objective of this activity is to study the escape route the survivors chose, discuss their decision, and assess the difficulties they encountered.
Deciding whether to go east or west was difficult for the survivors. They thought they were much further to the west than they actually were. In fact, they thought they were somewhere in the foothills deep in the Chilean territory, when they were actually in Argentina. Their erroneous belief was based on the information given to them by the co-pilot, who passed away shortly after the crash.
Describe the landscape where the survivors were stranded. Use satellite images and Google Earth to help you.
1. How mountainous is the area where the plane crashed? 2. Find the border between Argentina and Chile. In which country was the wrecked fuselage? 3. In which direction did the survivors decide to walk? 4. The survivors waited over two months before starting to walk. What was their reason for hesitating so long? Consider the change of season in the area from the (reduced resolution) Landsat images in natural colours below. 
Andes in September
Andes in November Andes in December Andes in JanuaryThese Landsat images are included in Andes.zip file. You can run these images as an Animation. After loading them, regulate the animation speed to a minimum.
Last update: 16 April 2013
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