A blue-tinged pall completely obscures Nyiragongo Volcano on July 24, 2010. The blue hue suggests the plume is rich in sulfur dioxide, a toxic gas frequently associated with the emissions of Nyiragongo. Although there are no current reports of an eruption at Nyiragongo, there is a persistent lava lake within the summit caldera. Nyiragongo is located on eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the border with Rwanda.

This natural-color satellite image was acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Robert Simmon.

Instrument: 

EO-1 - ALI