Plume from Shiveluch Volcano

(Click on image for larger view.)

Shiveluch Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula released a small plume on June 29, 2009, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead. This true-color image shows the almost perfectly circular plume poking above a cloudbank. The gray-beige volcanic plume is barely darker than the underlying clouds, likely due to volcanic ash mixed with water vapor. The plume casts a blue-gray shadow onto the clouds to the north.

Shiveluch (also spelled Sheveluch) Volcano is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Occurring along the margins of the Pacific tectonic plate, the ring of fire is the world’s most volcanically and seismically active area.

NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Robert Simmon and Michon Scott.

Instrument:
Aqua - MODIS - NASA