This astronaut photograph highlights two volcanoes located near the southern boundary of the Nazca–South America subduction zone in southern Chile. Dominating the scene is the massive Minchinmávida Volcano at image center. At bottom center is its smaller, but currently active, neighbor Chaitén.
Published Mar 9, 2009
Free of vegetation, the gray and white lava-covered peak of the Ubinas Volcano looks like it could be on the Moon or some other extraterrestrial body in this detailed true-color image from July 24, 2010.
Published Feb 6, 2011
Three Central American countries—El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua—have coastline along the Gulf of Fonseca, which opens into the Pacific Ocean. The southern boundary of the Gulf is a peninsula formed by the Cosigüina Volcano. Cosigüina is a stratovolcano, which is a cone-shaped volcano formed by alternating layers of solidified lava and volcanic rocks produced by explosive eruptions.
Published Dec 31, 2007
The snowy peaks of the three Peruvian volcanoes provide a stark contrast to the surrounding desert of the Puna Plateau in this astronaut photo from July 15, 2010.
Published Jul 26, 2010
Emi Koussi is a high volcano that lies at the south end of the Tibesti Mountains in the central Sahara in northern Chad. The volcano is one of several in the Tibesti massif, and reaches 3415 m in altitude, rising 2.3 kilometers above the surrounding sandstone plains. The volcano is 65 kilometers wide. This view of the Emi Koussi caldera is detailed to the point that it doesn’t include the entire 10-kilometer diameter of the caldera, but reveals individual lava strata within the walls of the summit cliffs. Nested within the main caldera is a smaller crater that contains white salts of a dry lake at its lowest point. Here too, strata are visible in the walls of the smaller crater. The smaller crater is surrounded by a region of darker rocks—a geologically young dome of lava studded with several small circular volcanic vents.
Published Dec 8, 2002
Ash streamed from one of El Salvador’s most active volcanos in January 2016.
Published Jan 13, 2016
Formed during four explosive eruptions that took place between 300,000 and 90,000 years ago, the volcanic caldera is now home to human settlements and 17 younger volcanoes.
Published Dec 24, 2012
Tolbachik Volcano is not a single peak, but a complex of volcanic features superimposed on one another.
Published Apr 14, 2013
Shiveluch is one of the biggest and most active of a line of volcanoes that follow the spine of the Kamchatka Peninsula in easternmost Russia. The volcanoes and peninsula are part of the tectonically active “Ring of Fire,” a zone of active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes that nearly surrounds the Pacific Ocean.
Published Sep 3, 2007
Sinuous, channelized lava flows are the most striking volcanic features visible in this astronaut photo of Teide and Viejo Volcanoes on Tenerife Island.
Published Aug 3, 2009
