On August 29, 2006, the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency reported that the Soufriere Hills Volcano on the island of Montserrat experienced a dome collapse and emitted an ash plume. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day. This image shows both the plume emanating from the volcano and blowing northward over the Caribbean Sea, and a hotspot. Outlined in red, the hotspot shows where the MODIS sensor detected land surface temperatures considerably hotter than the surroundings.
Beginning in 1995, a series of eruptions of the Soufriere Hills Volcano produced flows of hot rock, lava, and ash, forcing the evacuation of part of the island of Montserrat and eventually destroying the capital city of Plymouth.
References & Resources
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.
