Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity:

Etna volcano (Sicily): Tremor has started to increase this morning, although so far, no visible activity at the New SE crater has appeared while strong degassing from the NE crater continues. The next hours will probably show whether the volcano is going to prepare its next paroxysm in the near future or not.

Fly-By View of An Eruption

Getting a good wide-angle view of an erupting volcano can be difficult, even for the most accomplished photographers or orbiting satellites.

Views from most locations on the surface aren’t able to provide the full scope of the eruption and resulting ash cloud.

Space satellites are typically looking straight down as they pass over any spewing mountains, resulting in flattened, one-dimensional views.

But astronauts aboard the International Space Station can look off toward the horizon and can occasionally snap a photo like the one to the right.

It was taken on November 16, 2013, with a NASA digital camera as the orbiting laboratory passed to the southwest of Russia’s Klyuchevskoi volcano, located on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The photo gives an almost three-dimensional-type view, similar to what might be seen from a high-flying aircraft.

It not only shows the numerous volcanic peaks surrounding the erupting Klyuchevskoi, but also highlights the enormous plume of volcanic debris that extends outward toward the horizon.

Closer examination reveals that the heavier ash particles were falling from the main plume, and being carried northward by low-level winds.

But stronger winds aloft were blowing from a mainly westerly direction, sending the remaining lighter plume of steam and other gases out across the North Pacific.

Klyuchevskoi has been erupting sporadically since August. It sent another large plume of ash 4 miles into the atmosphere during a December 7 blast, three weeks after this NASA photo was taken.