Update on February 5, 2025: This Landsat image shows the Zavaritskogo (also called Zavaritskii) caldera in the Kuril Archipelago, between northern Japan and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Congratulations to Mike Ross for being the first reader to identify the location. Read more about this volcano in “Nested Calderas of Zavaritskogo.”
Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The January 2025 puzzler is shown above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us where it is, what we are looking at, and why it is interesting.
How to answer. You can use a few words or several paragraphs. You might simply tell us the location, or you can dig deeper and offer details about what satellite and instrument produced the image, what spectral bands were used to create it, or what is compelling about some obscure feature. If you think something is interesting or noteworthy, tell us about it.
The prize. We cannot offer prize money or a trip on the International Space Station, but we can promise you credit and glory. Well, maybe just credit. Within a week after a puzzler image appears on this blog, we will post an annotated and captioned version as our Image of the Day. After we post the answer, we will acknowledge the first person to correctly identify the image at the bottom of this blog post. We also may recognize readers who offer the most interesting tidbits of information. Please include your preferred name or alias with your comment. If you work for or attend an institution that you would like to recognize, please mention that as well.
Recent winners. If you have won the puzzler in the past few months, or if you work in geospatial imaging, please hold your answer for at least a day to give less experienced readers a chance.
Releasing comments. Savvy readers have solved some puzzlers after a few minutes. To give more people a chance, we may wait 24 to 48 hours before posting comments. Good luck!
Oh nice! Zavaritskii, in the Kuril Islands! Three nested calderas, each inside the other. It was just recently in the news – was geochemically identified as the source of a big eruption in 1831 in a recent paper in PNAS (would give a link to paper but you specifically ask for no links!)
Taal Volcano, Luzon Island, Philippines. It is a volcano within a volcano that is located in a lake within a lake (Taal Lake).
Zavaritski Caldera Kuril Islands
An erupting Chikurachki Volcano located on the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia.
This is Zavaritski Caldera in Russian as per Wikipedia it is a caldera system located in the center of Simushir island.
I learned something new
Daghild Rick
A crater within a crater with a lake collecting water I don’t know where.
Hi everyone!
The image shows the Zavaritski Caldera in Simushir island, in Rusia.
We can see three calderas wich are nested and a lake.
As I could read, Zavaritski eruptions are conected with sulfate peaks in polar ice cores and a global desaster 200 years ago by cooling the Earth.
Now, some scientists say a new eruption could occur.
Thank you for the puzzler and best regards from Argentina!
Monica
The image location is Caldera Zavaritski Rusia, zuruzovoe lake
Is it the volcano Gunung Rinjanni on the Indonesian island of Lombok?
Zavaritski Caldera on Simushir island, an island in the Kuril Islands archipelago in Russia.
Not sure where but it looks like a dormant volcano with some vegitation growth within its cone
I am pretty sure this is Tofu (might have spelled that wrong!) on Tonga.
My interests are wide at my age and I love my weekly NASA report. Thank you!
This is a nested caldera system. The large outer rim contains within in it a smaller caldera that is partially filled by a Lake. there is also a yet smaller caldera on the eastern side of the caldera lake depression . To the north a volcanic dome occupies the region of most recent volcanic activity—an endogenous dome probably a magma of andesitic to dacitic composition . the dome sits in yet another explosion crater. This is probably from an island in the south pacific probably in sub tropical zone.
Volcanic crater possibly south America with part of the plug protruding up into the cauldron
The place is the Zavaritskii volcano on the Simushir island of the Kuril archipelago. It is thought that it could be responsible for an eruption that occurred in 1831 that could be the cause of a cooling of the climate in the northern hemisphere.
Zavaritski Caldera
It is in russia it is a caldera its special because it is in the center of an island.
Zavarickogo
Zavaritski volcano .
The Zavaritski volcano contains three nested calderas.
It does look like Vulkan Zavaritskogo. Its eruption was most likely a cause of the global cooling of the 1830s
This is Zavaritski Caldera in the Kuril Archipelago that is between the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and Hokkaido in Japan. Its eruption in 1831 is the probable source of global cooling that occurred soon after.
This is Zavaritsky volcano in the Kuril islands.
This is the Zavaritski volcano. Researchers recently found out that this is the volcano that was the cause of a drop in temperature in 1831, caused famines, and caused the sun appearing green, purple and blue for a short time.
Biruzovoe(Midori) Lake or/and
Vulkan Zavaritskogo
Sachalinská oblast,( Ru ), (Rusko),
active volcano, pictured on old maps with snow and on this picture imitated tropical island …
New vegetation on warm period…
This is the Zavaritski Volcano, which is among the Kuril islands off the Kamchatka Peninsula. This volcano has 3 nested calderas and includes a lake within the youngest caldera. It also looks as though there may have been a recent landslide within that volcano.
I am very excited to have found this volcano on Google Earth, as it is the first time I’ve found the image of a puzzler – with the exception of a satellite view of Kansas City some years back (which was easy for me because I am a resident of that area).
The Zavaritski Volcano appears to be a very volatile place.