A jumble of hot ash, rock, and soil poured down the slopes of the Guatemalan volcano in early June. Weeks later, satellites continued to detect elevated temperatures in the thick deposits.
In late November 2006, Nyamuragira Volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted, and local scientists feared the lava flows would impact nearby towns. Between the volcano’s activity and the armed civil and interstate conflict that has plagued the region for nearly a decade, however, personal inspection of the location and extent of the lava flows was nearly impossible.
Located approximately 50 kilometers northeast of Tehran, Mt. Damavand is an impressive stratovolcano that reaches 5,670 meters (18,598 feet) in elevation. Part of the Alborz Mountain Range that borders the Caspian Sea to the north, Damavand is a young volcano that has formed mostly during the Holocene Epoch (over approximately the last 10,000 years). The western flank of the volcano includes solidified lava flows with flow levees—“walls” formed as the side edges of flowing lava cooled rapidly, forming a chute that channeled the hotter, interior lava. Two such flows with well-defined levees are highlighted by snow on the mountainside.