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.
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.
