On Montserrat, so the saying goes, every day is a bad hair day. Besides ruining hairdos, volcanic ash from the island’s Soufriere Hills Volcano coats the interiors of both homes and noses. When exposed to moisture, the sulfur in the volcanic dust turns to acid, and erodes paint off houses and cars. On July 1, 2005, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite caught the volcano in the act.
In this image, a faint plume of volcanic ash blows westward across the Atlantic from the tiny island of Montserrat in the center of the image. To the northwest are the islands of Basseterre and Nevis. To the northeast is the island of Antigua. To the southeast is Guadeloupe.
- Recommended Further Reading:
- Holmes, H. (2001) The Secret Life of Dust. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
References & Resources
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
