NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Michon Scott.
Klyuchevskaya Volcano on the Russian Federation’s Kamchatka Peninsula continued to release a plume on June 12, 2010. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color image the same day.
This image uses a combination of visible and near-infrared light. Vegetation doesn't thrive on Klyuchevskaya’s rocky slopes, and the scene appears in shades of gray—a combination of rock, snow, cloud, and volcanic plume. Clouds form a semicircle around the northern half of the volcano, and the volcanic plume blows in the clouds’ direction.
Klyuchevskaya (or Kliuchevskoi) is a stratovolcano. It’s the highest and most active volcano on Kamchatka. Klyuchevskaya’s summit crater has been modified by numerous geologically recent eruptions, including eruptions recorded since the late seventeenth century.
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This image originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.