Chikurachki Volcano, in the northern Kurile Islands, off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, released another plume of ash and/or steam on September 19, 2007, continuing a pattern of intermittent activity. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this picture the same day. In this image, a tan-colored plume blows away from the volcano’s summit toward the southeast, over the Pacific Ocean. To the east, bright white clouds form a line roughly parallel to the volcanic plume, likely blown by the same winds.
Chikurachki is a stratovolcano composed of hardened lava, solidified ash, and volcanic rocks. This volcano is actually a relatively small cone sitting atop an older structure that was built by volcanic activity in the Pleistocene. The underlying edifice makes Chikurachki, with a summit elevation of 1,816 meters (5,958 feet), the highest volcano on Paramushir Island.
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NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.
