On January 22, 2014, Mount Etna was gearing up for another burst of activity. A diffuse plume of gas and ash rose from the Northeast Crater at the volcano’s summit, accompanied by a smaller, dense plume emitted from the New Southeast Crater. Within a few days, lava would flow down the slopes of the Valle del Bove. Etna, located on the Italian island of Sicily, is Europe’s most active volcano.
This false-color image combines near infrared, red, and green light. Snow is white, geologically fresh (up to 100 years old) lava is black and dark brown, while vegetation is deep red. The volcanic plume is light gray. The image was collected by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
