Plume from Soufriere Hills

Plume from Soufriere Hills

The Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat released another faint plume on November 16, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, the dingy gray plume blows toward the northwest, over the neighboring islands of Nevis and St. Kitts.

Soufriere Hills is a stratovolcano composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, solidified ash, and rocks ejected by previous eruptions. The volcano experienced a serious eruption in the seventeenth century then remained quiet until 1995. That year, activity from the volcano forced the evacuation of the southern half of Montserrat.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes data archives (LAADS).