This is an image of the area of Kliuchevskoi volcano, Kamchatka, Russia, which began to erupt on September 30, 1994. Kliuchevskoi is the blue triangular peak in the center of the image, towards the left edge of the bright red area that delineates bare snow cover. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 88th orbit on October 5, 1994. The image shows an area approximately 75 kilometers by 100 kilometers (46 miles by 62 miles) that is centered at 56.07 degrees north latitude and 160.84 degrees east longitude. North is toward the bottom of the image. The radar illumination is from the top of the image. The Kamchatka volcanoes are among the most active volcanoes in the world. The volcanic zone sits above a tectonic plate boundary, where the Pacific plate is sinking beneath the northeast edge of the Eurasian plate. The Endeavour crew obtained dramatic video and photographic images of this region during the eruption, which will assist scientists in analyzing the dynamics of the recent activity. The colors in this image were obtained using the following radar channels: red represents the L- band (horizontally transmitted and received), green represents the L-band (horizontally transmitted and vertically received), blue represents the C-band (horizontally transmitted and vertically received). In addition to Kliuchevskoi, two other active volcanoes are visible in the image. Bezymianny, the circular crater above and to the right of Kliuchevskoi, contains a slowly growing lava dome. Tolbachik is the large volcano with a dark summit crater near the upper right edge of the red snow covered area. The Kamchatka River runs from right to left across the bottom of the image. The current eruption of Kliuchevskoi included massive ejections of gas, vapor and ash, which reached altitudes of 15,000 meters (50,000 feet). Melting snow mixed with volcanic ash triggered mudflows on the flanks of the volcano. Paths of these flows can be seen as thin lines in various shades of blue and green on the north flank in the center of the image. ----- Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves, allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band (24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by the international scientific community to better understand the global environment and how it is changing. The SIR-C/X-SAR data, complemented by aircraft and ground studies, will give scientists clearer insights into those environmental changes which are caused by nature and those changes which are induced by human activity. SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. X-SAR was developed by the Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the German space agency, Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA), and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft und Raumfahrt e.v.(DLR), the major partner in science, operations and data processing of X-SAR. #####
Ash Plume from Cleveland Vol
…
Title
Ash Plume from Cleveland Volcano
Description
At 3:00 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on May 23, 2006, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams from International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 13 contacted the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) [ http://www.avo.alaska.edu/ ] to report that the Cleveland Volcano had produced a plume of ash. Shortly after the activity began, he took this photograph. This picture shows the ash plume moving west-southwest from the volcano's summit. A bank of fog (upper right) is a common feature around the Aleutian Islands. The event proved to be short-lived, two hours later, the plume had completely detached from the volcano (see image from May 24 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13598 ]). The AVO reported that the ash cloud height could have been as high as 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) above sea level. Cleveland Volcano, situated on the western half of Chuginadak Island, is one of the most active of the volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands, which extend west-southwest from the Alaska mainland. It is a stratovolcano, composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, compacted volcanic ash, and volcanic rocks. At a summit elevation of 1,730 meters, this volcano is the highest in the Islands of the Four Mountains group. Carlisle Island to the north-northwest, another stratovolcano, is also part of this group. Magma that feeds eruptions of ash and lava from the Cleveland Volcano is generated by the northwestward movement of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate. As one tectonic plate moves beneath another—a process called subduction—melting of materials above and within the lower plate produces magma that can eventually move to the surface and erupt through a vent (such as a volcano). Cleveland Volcano claimed the only known eruption-related fatality in the Aleutian Islands, in 1944. Astronaut photograph ISS013-E-24184 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS013&roll=E&frame=24184 ] was acquired May 23, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ]
Mount St. Helens
Title
Mount St. Helens
Description
After over a decade of silence, Mount St. Helens has started to rumble. Following a week of threatening earthquakes, the volcano belched forth a plume of ash and steam on October 1, 2004. Hot rock pushed to the surface, vaporizing the mountain glaciers into steam. The earthquakes continued over the course of the following three days accompanied by another small steam eruption. On October 4, a second cloud of steam billowed from the mountain for about 40 minutes starting at 9:43 a.m., local time. Two hour later, the Ikonos satellite captured this detailed image of the volcano?s crater. A small cloud of steam and ash can be still be seen rising from the left edge of the circular crater in the center of the image. The surface of the volcano bears scars from past activity with silvery ribbons of lava radiating from the center. For updates and additional information about the eruption, please visit the Cascade Volcano Observatory [ http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/framework.html ] sponsored by the USGS. Image copyright Space Imaging [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]
Mount St. Helens
Title
Mount St. Helens
Description
The tip of Mount St. Helens glowed red when the Landsat 5 satellite passed overhead on October 14, 2004. At the time, the volcano was at alert level 2 in a three level warning system, level two indicates that the volcano is restless and may erupt at any time, but an eruption is not imminent. By this time, hot lava had broken to the surface of the growing lava dome inside the crater. The red dot seen here actually represents pixels that were saturated in Landsat's thermal bands and corresponds to the lava seeping out of the lava dome. The false-color image also emphasizes the contrast between the lush temperate forests and farmland and the lava and ash covered volcano. In this image, all vegetation is bright green and bare land is grey and tan. Spirit Lake is the black lake northeast of the volcano. Image by Pat Scaramuzza provided by Ron Beck, USGS EROS Data Center [ http://edc.usgs.gov/ ]
Erupting Volcano Mount Etna
Name of Image
Erupting Volcano Mount Etna
Date of Image
2001-07-22
Full Description
An Expedition Two crewmember aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this overhead look at the smoke and ash regurgitated from the erupting volcano Mt. Etna on the island of Sicily, Italy. At an elevation of 10,990 feet (3,350 m), the summit of the Mt. Etna volcano, one of the most active and most studied volcanoes in the world, has been active for a half-million years and has erupted hundreds of times in recorded history.
Mount St. Helens
Title
Mount St. Helens
Description
On March 8, 2005, Mount St Helens belched a large cloud of ash and steam, the largest to erupt from the volcano since October 2004. The volcano rumbled back to life in September 2004, and has been restless ever since. The IKONOS satellite snapped the top image of Mount St Helens on March 9, the day after the most recent eruption. In the five months between October 4, when Ikonos acquired the bottom image, and March 9, a new lava dome has grown in the crater. The new dome forms a large brown bulge that wasn't previously present. The USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory reports that the dome had risen 500 feet above the top of the old lava dome as of February 1, 2005. The top of the dome is about 700 feet below the rim of the crater, the circular ridge below the dome. Another feature that points to Mount St. Helens' recent activity is the snow inside the crater, which is tinted brown with ash. Other differences between March 9 and October 4 may be a result of the time of day—shadows fall in different places in the images because of the sun's location when each image was acquired. Images copyright Space Imaging [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]
Io: A Volcanic Moon
Title
Io: A Volcanic Moon
Explanation
In 1610, Galileo [ http://bang.lanl.gov/video/stv/arshtml/arstoc.html ] turned his telescope to the heavens and discovered that the planet Jupiter had four bright moons. The innermost of these Galilean moons, Io [ http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/SolarSystem/io.html ], turned out to be one of the most exotic objects in the solar system. About the size of the earth's moon, Io is covered with volcanoes, many of which are currently active. The material expelled in the volcanic eruptions may contain compounds of Sulfur which take on a variety of colors and could account for its mottled, "pizza-like" appearance. For a report of a recent eruption of an Io volcano, see the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility press release [ http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/JASON/IO_DATA/IMAGES/iooutburst.txt ] and photo . Tomorrow's picture: Closeup of an Io Volcano.
Jebel at Tair Eruption
Title
Jebel at Tair Eruption
Description
Jebel at Tair, a volcanic island in the Red Sea, erupted at the end of September 2007. The eruption released lava and ash, and created a spectacular light show, according to observers in the area. On October 15, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite acquired this image. This shows a largely quieted volcano releasing only a faint volcanic plume. ASTER measures light visible to human eyes and infrared light, enabling the sensor to detect thermal anomalies caused by substantial temperature differences. The bright red spot at the summit is a thermal anomaly. A smaller, fainter anomaly appears just northwest of the summit. The volcano's slopes bear the marks of previous eruptions, the darker streaks indicating more recent lava flows.Jebel at Tair [ http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0201-01= ] is a stratovolcano—a cone composed of alternating layers of ash, lava, and rocks from earlier eruptions. The latest eruption is a continuation of activity on this island, where explosive eruptions were recorded in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The volcano is known by multiple names and spellings, including Jabal al-Tair, Jabal al-Tayr, Tair Island, Al-Tair Island, Djebel Teyr, and Jibbel Tir. You can download a 15-meter-resolution KMZ file of Jebel al-Tair [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Oct2007/jebelaltair_ast_2007288.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]
Tungurahua Erupts
Title
Tungurahua Erupts
Explanation
Volcano Tungurahua erupted spectacularly last year. Pictured above [ http://patricktaschler.com/portfolio/ecuador-tungurahua.html ], molten rock so hot it glows visibly pours down the sides of the 5,000-meter high Tungurahua [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungurahua ], while a cloud of dark ash [ http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/ ] is seen being ejected toward the left. Wispy white clouds flow around the lava-lit peak [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051002.html ], while a star-lit sky shines in the distance. The above image was captured last year [ http://www.summitpost.org/image/333708/327989/the-black-giant.html ] as ash fell around the adventurous photographer. Located in Ecuador [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador ], Tungurahua has become active roughly every 90 years since for the last 1,300 years. Volcano Tungurahua [ http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/south_america/ecuador/tungurahua.html ] has started erupting again this year and continues erupting at a lower level even today. APOD editor to review best space pictures in Philadelphia next Wednesday [ http://www.rittenhouseastronomicalsociety.org/ ]
Volcano and Aurora in Icelan
…
Title
Volcano and Aurora in Iceland
Explanation
Sometimes both heaven "and" Earth erupt. In Iceland [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ic.html ] in 1991, the volcano Hekla [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hekla ] erupted at the same time that auroras [ http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/ ] were visible [ http://www.iww.is/art/shs/ ] overhead. Hekla [ http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/europe_west_asia/hekla.html ], one of the most famous volcanoes [ http://www.crystalinks.com/volcanoesactive.html ] in the world, has erupted [ http://www.volcanolive.com/faq.html ] at least 20 times over the past millennium, sometimes causing great destruction [ http://www.decadevolcano.net/santorini/santorini_introduction.htm ]. The last eruption [ http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/heklanews.html ] occurred only six years ago but caused only minor damage. The green auroral band [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010402.html ] occurred fortuitously [ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/100best/wallpaper09.html ] about 100 kilometers above the erupting lava [ http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/frequent_questions/group1_new.html ]. Is Earth [ http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html ] the Solar System's only planet with both auroras [ http://www.physicsweb.org/article/news/5/1/10 ] and volcanos [ http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=12955 ]?
Plume from Jebel at Tair
Title
Plume from Jebel at Tair
Description
Jebel at Tair, a small volcanic island in the Red Sea, which had erupted [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14559 ] in late September 2007, released a volcanic plume on November 8, 2007. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) [ http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov/Technology/ALIhome1.htm ] on NASA's EO-1 [ http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] captured this image the same day. In this image, volcanic plume appears as billowing puffs of white emanating from the summit. Evidence of earlier lava flows appears as dark stains on the volcano's slopes. Midway between Yemen and Eritrea, Jebel at Tair [ http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0201-01= ] is a stratovolcano composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, solidified ash, and rocks ejected by previous eruptions. Jebel at Tair is known by multiple names and spellings. It has alternately been referred to as Jabal al-Tair, Jabal al-Tayr, Tair Island, Al-Tair Island, Djebel Teyr, and Jibbel Tir. Image courtesy Ashley Davies, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Closeup of an Io Volcano
Title
Closeup of an Io Volcano
Explanation
In 1979, one of NASA's Voyager [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/voyager.html ] spacecraft made a spectacular and unexpected discovery. Io, [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950803.html ] the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter, was covered with volcanoes and some of them were erupting! In all, Voyager 1 observed nine volcanic eruptions during its encounter with the moon. When Voyager 2 flew past four months later it was able to confirm that at least six of them were still erupting. This Voyager image of Ra Patera, a large shield volcano, shows colorful flows up to about 200 miles long emanating from the dark central volcanic vent. For more information about volcanism on Io, see Calvin J. Hamilton's Io page [ http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/SolarSystem/io.html ] Tomorrow's picture: Geysers on Triton
False Color Image of Volcano
…
PIA00203
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
Title
False Color Image of Volcano Sapas Mons
Original Caption Released with Image
This false-color image shows the volcano Sapas Mons, which is located in the broad equatorial rise called Atla Regio (8 degrees north latitude and 188 degrees east longitude). The area shown is approximately 650 kilometers (404 miles) on a side. Sapas Mons measures about 400 kilometers (248 miles) across and 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) high. Its flanks show numerous overlapping lava flows. The dark flows on the lower right are thought to be smoother than the brighter ones near the central part of the volcano. Many of the flows appear to have been erupted along the flanks of the volcano rather than from the summit. This type of flank eruption is common on large volcanoes on Earth, such as the Hawaiian volcanoes. The summit area has two flat-topped mesas, whose smooth tops give a relatively dark appearance in the radar image. Also seen near the summit are groups of pits, some as large as one kilometer (0.6 mile) across. These are thought to have formed when underground chambers of magma were drained through other subsurface tubes and lead to a collapse at the surface. A 20 kilometer-diameter (12-mile diameter) impact crater northeast of the volcano is partially buried by the lava flows. Little was known about Atla Regio prior to Magellan. The new data, acquired in February 1991, show the region to be composed of at least five large volcanoes such as Sapas Mons, which are commonly linked by complex systems of fractures or rift zones. If comparable to similar features on Earth, Atla Regio probably formed when large volumes of molten rock upwelled from areas within the interior of Venus known as'hot spots.' Magellan is a NASA spacecraft mission to map the surface of Venus with imaging radar. The basic scientific instrument is a synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, which can look through the thick clouds perpetually shielding the surface of Venus. Magellan is in orbit around Venus which completes one turn around its axis in 243 Earth days. That period of time, one Venus day, is the length of a Magellan mapping cycle. The spacecraft completed its first mapping cycle and primary mission on May 15, 1991, and immediately began its second cycle. During the first cycle, Magellan mapped more than 80 percent of the planet's surface and the current and subsequent cycles of equal duration will provide complete mapping of Venus. Magellan was launched May 4, 1989, aboard the space shuttle Atlantis and went into orbit around Venus August 10, 1990.
Heard Island Volcano
Title
Heard Island Volcano
Description
Closer to Antarctica than any other major landmass, Heard Island sits in the far southern Indian Ocean two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. At the center of the remote, ice-covered island are the Big Ben massif, a large section of the Earth's crust that has been pushed up into a dense, rocky mountain by tectonic action, and an active volcano, Mawson Peak. The geologic activity that formed these features continues in the form of frequent eruptions from Mawson Peak. The volcano's current phase of activity began in May 2006, and it continued through December 2006, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image. Made with both infrared and visible light, the image shows signs of volcanic activity on December 8, 2006. A glowing dot of red on Mawson Peak is thought to be a small lava lake in the summit crater. A fresh lava flow extends 700 meters east of the crater, creating a dark blue smudge on the otherwise even field of snow, which is blue-green in this false-color image. The rocky Big Ben Massif south of Mawson Peak similarly wrinkles the surface of the snow, though some of the apparent roughness may actually be icy clouds. Previous volcanic episodes, including those in 2000-2001 and 2003-2004, have lasted about a year. Due to its isolated location, Heard Island is rarely visited, and satellite imagery provides the only regular information on eruptive activity. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]. Image interpretation provided by Matt Patrick and Anna Colvin, Michigan Technological University. [ http://www.mtu.edu/ ]
Mount Etna, Sicily
Title
Mount Etna, Sicily
Description
One of the most consistently active volcanoes in the world, Sicily's Mount Etna has a historical record of eruptions dating back to 1500 BC. This astronaut photograph captures plumes of steam and possibly ash originating from summit craters on the mountain: the Northeast Crater and Central Crater, which includes two secondary craters (Voragine and Bocca Nuova). Locals heard explosions coming from the rim of the Northeast Crater on July 26, 2006, and the plumes shown in this image are likely a continuation of that activity. The massive 3,350-meter-high volcano is located approximately 24 kilometers north of Catania, the second-largest city in Sicily, and it dominates the city's northern skyline. Much of Etna's surface consists of generations of dark, basaltic lava flows that extended outwards from the summit craters. Fertile soils developed on older flows are marked by green vegetation. Although Etna's current explosive eruptions tend to occur at the summit, lava flows generally erupt through fissures lower down on the flanks of the volcano. Cinder cones, such as Monte Frumento, mark many of the lava flow vents on the volcano's flanks. There is evidence of larger eruptive events as well. The Valle del Bove to the south-southeast of the summit is a caldera formed by the emptying of a subsurface magma chamber during a large eruptive event. Once the magma chamber emptied, the overlying roof material collapsed downwards. Astronaut photograph ISS013-E-62714 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS013&roll=E&frame=62714 ] was acquired August 2, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have also been removed. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ]
Mount Ubinas, Peru
Title
Mount Ubinas, Peru
Description
Subduction of the Nazca tectonic plate [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Plate ] along the western coast of South America forms the high Peruvian Andes. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes_Mountains ] The subduction (movement of one plate beneath another) also produces magma, feeding a chain of historically active volcanoes along the western front of the mountains. The most active of these volcanoes in Peru is Ubinas. [ http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1504-02= ] A typical, steep-sided stratovolcano comprised primarily of layers of silica-rich lava flows, it has a summit elevation of 5,672 meters (18,609 feet). At 1.4 kilometers (0.87 miles) across, the volcano's caldera gives it a truncated profile. Hardened lava flows from past eruptions linger on the volcano's flanks. This oblique image (looking at an angle) from the International Space Station (ISS) captures an ash cloud first observed on satellite imagery at 11:00 GMT on August 14, 2006. An ISS astronaut took this picture one hour and 45 minutes later. The ash cloud caused the Buenos Aires Volcanic Ash Advisory Center to issue an aviation hazard warning. Minor to moderately explosive eruptions of ash and pumice characterize modern activity at Ubinas. Pumice and ash blanket the volcanic cone and surrounding area, giving this image an overall gray appearance. Shadowing of the western flank of Ubinas throws several lava flows into sharp relief, and highlights the steep slopes at the flow fronts—common characteristics of thick, slow-moving lavas. The most recent major eruption of Ubinas occurred in 1969, although its historical record of activity extends back to the 16th century. Astronaut photograph ISS013-E-66488 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS013&roll=E&frame=66488 ] was acquired August 14, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have also been removed. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ]
Ongoing Eruption of Mount Be
…
Title
Ongoing Eruption of Mount Belinda
Description
IKONOS captured this spectacular view of the ongoing eruption of the Mount Belinda volcano on Montagu Island, in the South Sandwich Islands of the Scotia Sea, some 250 kilometers from South Georgia Island. The South Sandwich Islands are situated approximately between the southern tip of South America and mainland Antarctica. Montagu Island is dominated by the long-dormant Mount Belinda stratovolcano, which rises 1370 meters above sea level. This volcano is totally ice-covered, and until late 2001, it was inactive, thereby accumulating a thick cover of ice and snow. However, as this image shows, the volcano began erupting in late 2001, spewing basaltic lavas that have melted the ice, producing a marvelous ?natural laboratory? for studying lava-ice interactions relevant to the biology of extreme environments as well as to processes believed to be important on the planet Mars. This image was acquired on October 1, 2004, and shows the steaming vent crater and dark, basaltic tephra covered ice surfaces to the north of the lavas which erupted down the northern flank of the Mt. Belinda stratovolcano. The steam plume is drifting toward the north, and light clouds surround the south side of the crater. White chunks of ice float in the ocean surrounding Montagu Island. The full resolution version of the image shown above has a resolution of 4 meters per pixel, but IKONOS also acquired the image at 1 meter per pixel (3.20 Mb). Thanks to the 1-meter imaging capabilities of the IKONOS satellite, dynamic processes such as those on remote, uninhabited islands, can be monitored from orbit, thereby serving to target more intensive field studies when they are justified. As such, IKONOS imaging of localities such as active eruptions involving ice-lava interactions, represents a new form of scientific exploration of planet Earth. Image copyright Space Imaging [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ], caption by Dr. Jim Garvin, NASA Chief Scientist for Mars and the Moon
Time heals all wounds. A loo
…
Title
Time heals all wounds. A look at Mt. St. Helens (slower dissolve)
Abstract
Mount St. Helens over time (1973, 1983, and 2000) via the Landsat satellites. Scientists can see how the local area is healing after the 1980 eruption of the volcano.
Completed
2001-04-12
Description
*Why is Olympus Mons so big?* The main difference between the volcanoes on Mars and Earth is their size, volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars are 10 to 100 times larger than those anywhere on Earth. The lava flows on the Martian surface are observed to be much longer, probably a result of higher eruption rates and lower surface gravity. Another reason why the volcanoes on Mars are so massive is because the crust on Mars doesn't move the way it does on Earth. On Earth, the hot spots remain stationary but crustal plates are moving above them. The Hawaiian islands result from the northwesterly movement of the Pacific plate over a stationary hotspot producing lava. As the plate moves over the hotspot, new volcanoes are formed and the existing ones become extinct. This distributes the total volume of lava among many volcanoes rather than one large volcano. On Mars, the crust remains stationary and the lava piles up in one, very large volcano.*For more on Olympus Mons: 3-D image of Olympus Mons (you'll need 3-D glasses!)Earth and Space Network [ http://www.earthspace.net/solar_system/mars_html/mars_surface.html ]University of Michigan [ http://www.windows.umich.edu/cgi-bin/tour.cgi?link=/mars/interior/Martian_volcanoes.html&sw=false&sn=4444&d=/mars/interior&edu=mid&br=graphic&back=/mars/exploring/MGS_altimeter_OMons.html&cd=false&tour=&fr=f ]*
General Description
International Space Station Imagery
Space Radar Image of Kliuche
…
PIA01766
Sol (our sun)
Title
Space Radar Image of Kliuchevskoi Volcano,Russia
Magma Bubbles from Mt. Etna
Title
Magma Bubbles from Mt. Etna
Explanation
Mt. Etna [ http://www.volcanolive.com/etna.html ] erupted spectacularly in 2001 June. Pictured above [ http://www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli/etna/etna01/etna0106photo1-en.html ], the volcano [ http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html ] was photographed expelling bubbles of hot magma, some of which measured over one meter across. One reason planetary geologists study Earth's Mt. Etna [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030331.html ] is because of its likely similarity [ http://www.astrobio.net/news/article316.html ] to volcanoes [ http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/volc/types.html ] on Mars [ http://www.nineplanets.org/mars.html ]. Mt. Etna, a basalt volcano [ http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/basalt.html ], is composed of material similar to Mars, and produces similar lava channels [ http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/flow_features.html ]. Located in Sicily [ http://www.siol.it/Ricerca/Sicily_map.htm ], Italy [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/it.html ], Mt. Etna [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Etna ] is not only one of the most active volcanoes on Earth [ http://www.volcanolive.com/active2.html ], it is one of the largest [ http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/maunaloa/ ], measuring over 50 kilometers at its base and rising nearly 3 kilometers high.
STS-42 Earth observation of
…
Title
STS-42 Earth observation of Kamchatka Peninsula
Description
STS-42 Earth observation taken aboard Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103, with an electronic still camera (ESC) is of Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Mid-afternoon sun projects long shadows from volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula. This flat-topped volcano with the sharp summit crater is Tobachinsky, over 3,085 kilometers high. Its last major eruption was in 1975 and 1976, but it has been very active since the middle of the Sixteenth Century. The shadows cast by the low sunlight brings out the dramatic relief of the volcano as well as the smaller morphologic features. Electronic still photography is a relatively new technology that enables a camera to electronically capture and digitize an image with resolution approaching film quality. The digital images from STS-42 were stored on a disk and brought home with the flight crewmembers for processing. ESC was developed by the JSC Man-Systems Division and this mission's application of it is part of a continuing evolutionary development le
Date Taken
1992-01-30
Venus - Volcanic Domes on Fl
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PIA00487
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
Title
Venus - Volcanic Domes on Flank of Volcanic Maat in East Ovda Region
Original Caption Released with Image
This Magellan image is centered about 3.2 degrees north latitude, 194.9 degrees longitude in the eastern Ovda region of Venus. The image, which is 90 km (56 miles) in width and 80 km (50 miles) in length, shows some small volcanic domes on the flank of the volcano Maat. The bright flows to the east are most likely rough lava flows while the darker flows to the west are probably smoother flows. The dark flows do show some roughness, however, as can be seen by the structure in the flows to the southwest. These dark flows also have some debris that has been deposited on top of the flows. The debris may be fine material from the surrounding plains on top of the flow by wind or it may be ash from the volcano. Small volcanic domes are very common features on the surface of Venus, indicating that there has been much volcanic activity on the surface. Assuming that the central volcanic cone is symmetrical in shape and knowing the length of the cone's side and the incidence angle, radar foreshortening yields a height and slope of 688 meters and 8.2 degrees, respectively for the cone. These values are similar to heights and slopes of some volcanic cones on the Earth.
Volcanic Activity in the Sou
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Title
Volcanic Activity in the South Sandwich Islands
Description
In late October 2006, Mount Belinda, on Montagu Island in the remote South Sandwich Islands, continued emitting volcanic ash and lava in what had become a five-year-long eruption. The volcano's activity intensified in September 2005, producing a lava field that traveled 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) from Mount Belinda to the sea. That lava eruption left a 500-meter-wide lava delta, still visible more than a year later. On October 28, 2006, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image of Montagu. This image shows an ash plume covering the northeast quadrant of the otherwise snowy island. It also shows the remains of the 2005 lava delta. Image courtesy Matt Patrick, Michigan Tech
Three-dimensional perspectiv
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PIA00095
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
Title
Three-dimensional perspective views of Venusian Terrains composed of reduced resolution left-looking synthetic-aperture radar images merged with altimetry data from the Magellan spacecraft.
Original Caption Released with Image
The view shows part of Galindo (V40) quadrangle looking north, 200 km wide Nagavonyi Corona is in the foreground. Coronae are roughly circular, volcanic features believed to form over hot upwellings of magma within the Venusian mantle. A 2-km shield volcano behind the corona partly buries the Phoebo Regio highlands (shown as radar-bright mounds).
General Description
International Space Station Imagery
General Description
STS-99 Shuttle Mission Imagery
General Description
International Space Station Imagery
General Description
International Space Station Imagery
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