Sakurajima Volcano, located in southern Japan about 950 km from Tokyo (see map below), erupted for the 500th time this August, 2013. The explosive eruption of Mt Sakurajima, a 1117-meter peak, left the city of Kagoshima covered with volcanic ash (see photo below), causing train delays and poor visibility, forcing the residents of Kagoshima to use masks and umbrellas to protect themselves from the ash. The eruption also resulted in a small flow that traveled 1 km from the crater. The eruption sent a volcanic plume 5000 m in the air, as seen in the photo below.
These pictures of Pavlof Volcano in Alaska were not taken by satellite, but rather were taken by astronauts living on board the International Space Station on May 18, 2013. Pavlof volcano is located in the Aleutian Islands about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska.
Four active volcanoes located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia were caught erupting simultaneously on January 11, 2013! This is no real suprise as the Kamchatka Peninsula has the highest concentration of active volcanoes on Earth, but to have images of Shiveluch, Bezymianny, Plosky-Tolbachik, and Kizimen volanoes (see map below) erupting at the same time is quite spectacular. The activity of the four volcanoes was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA's Terra satellite during a single orbit. An amazing satellite photo of Tolbachik volcano is shown below, which is one of the few shield volcanoes on Kamchatka. The photo shows the thin, runny lava flows forming low and broad flows much like those formed in Hawai'i and the hot lava actually glowing in near-infrared light. The image above is of a lava fountaining on Polsky Tolbachik courtesy of Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT).
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