Odds and Ends: Kamchatkan Volcanoes

Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula is perhaps the most volcanically active spot on the planet. Last week’s Global Volcanism Program weekly report (for February 16–22, 2011) listed three Kamchatkan volcanoes currently in eruption—Karymsky, Kizimen, and Shiveluch—and two others—Bezymianny and Klyuchevskaya—were mentioned earlier in February. In one overpass a NASA satellite captured four of these volcanoes in one narrow overpass, only 60 kilometers wide and 300 kilometers long. All of them exhibit plumes. I zoomed in on the most spectacular—Kizimen and Shiveluch—for our Natural Hazards section, but I’d like to share Klyuchevskaya (below) and the entire image—all 9,822 by 20,729 pixels of it (13 MB JPEG).

NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.