Karymsky is one of the most active volcanoes on Kamchatka, a mountainous and volcano-studded peninsula in the Russian far east. On January 28, 2010, a volcanic plume rose above Karymsky’s ash-covered summit.
The steeply angled winter sunlight (coming almost directly from the bottom of the image) highlights the area’s terrain and casts a long shadow from the volcano’s plume. Karymsky stands in the center of a 7,700-year-old caldera, and it is covered by lava flows erupted as recently as 2000. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this false-color image at 12:38 Kamchatka time.
According to the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, seismicity (the frequency and intensity of earthquakes and tremors) at Karymsky was above background levels for the previous week, and the summit was warm enough for satellites to detect a thermal anomaly. Karymsky has been active more or less continuously since November 2001.
NASA image and caption by Robert Simmon, based on data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
