An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of Ksudach, a volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The peninsula is one of the world’s most active volcanic arcs due to tectonic plate movement, with the Pacific Plate subducting under the Eurasian Plate.
Several overlapping calderas and craters comprise the volcano. Calderas are large, bowl-shaped depressions created by the collapse of overlying material into an emptied subsurface magma chamber. Craters are circular depressions created by volcanic activity, surface impacts, or explosions. The most recent activity of the volcanic complex occurred in 1907, producing Stubel Crater in the northern portion of the caldera.
Water accumulated in Stubel Crater and formed Shtyubela Lake, which feeds the Khodutka River. The large waterbody toward the south, Klyuchevoye Lake, is endorheic, which means it lacks an outlet. Lakes within the volcanic region are primarily recharged by rain and snowmelt from the winter season. This photo shows the water’s contrasting blue hues surrounded by green vegetation.
Traces of snow fill valleys within and outside the volcano’s caldera complex. These snow-covered areas highlight the drainage patterns from higher to lower elevations. Water that flows through these erosional pathways and into the caldera supports its vegetation and lakes.
References & Resources
Astronaut photograph ISS069-E-71132 was acquired on August 19, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 1,150 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 69 crew . The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth . Caption by Alan Espino, Amentum-JETS II Contract at NASA-JSC.
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