Plume from Bagana, Bougainville Island

Plume from Bagana, Bougainville Island

Bagana Volcano on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea sent a wispy plume southward on June 28, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, Bagana’s plume appears dingy gray, snaking its way over Bougainville and the Solomon Sea.

Bagana is a symmetrical cone formed from hardened lava left by previous eruptions. At approximately 1,750 meters (5,740 feet) high, the volcano is one of the youngest and most active volcanoes in Melanesia.

You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of Bagana suitable for use with Google Earth.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.