Eruption of Soufriere Hills Volcano

Eruption of Soufriere Hills Volcano

The Soufriere Hills Volcano on the island of Montserrat began emitting steam and ash on February 9, 2006. Low-level activity continued for several days. The volcano produced another plume on March 20, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Aqua satellite captured this image the same day.

In this image, the volcano’s pale beige ash plume blows westward over the Caribbean Sea. The red outline shows where the satellite detected a thermal anomaly, an area where the ground surface was significantly hotter than its surroundings.

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