Tag Archives: kamchatka

Alaid Volcano, Kuril Islands, Russian Federation (NASA, International Space Station, 05/18/12)

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Alaid Volcano in the Kuril Islands of the Russian Federation is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 31 crew member on the International Space Station. The Kurils chain extends from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the islands of Japan, and contains numerous active volcanoes along its length. Alaid is the highest (2,339 meters above sea level) volcano in the Kuril chain, as well as being the northernmost. The textbook conic morphology of this stratovolcano is marred only by the summit crater, which is breached to the south (center) and highlighted by snow cover. The volcano rises 3,000 meters directly from the floor of the Sea of Okhotsk, with the uppermost part of the volcanic edifice exposed as an island. Much of the sea surface surrounding the volcano has a silver-gray appearance. This mirror-like appearance is due to sunglint, where light reflects off the sea surface and is scattered directly towards the observer onboard the space station. Sunglint is largely absent from a zone directly to the west of the volcano, most likely due to surface wind or water current patterns that change the roughness — and light scattering properties — of the water surface in this area. Volcanoes in the Kurils, and similar island arcs in the Pacific "ring of fire", are fed by magma generated along the boundary between two tectonic plates, where one plate is being driven beneath the other (a process known as subduction). Alaid Volcano has been historically active with the most recent confirmed explosive activity occurring in 1996.

Image credit: NASA/JSC

Original image:
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin…

By: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Ice Floes, Kamchatka Coast, Russia (NASA, International Space Station, 03/15/12)

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Ice floes along the Kamchatka coastline are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 30 crew member on the International Space Station. The vantage point from orbit frequently affords the opportunity to observe processes that are impossible to see on the ground — or in this case the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The winter season blankets the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia in snow, but significant amounts of sea ice can also form and collect along the coastline. As ice floes grind against each other, they produce smaller floes that can be moved by wind and water currents acting along the coastline. The irregular southeastern coastline of Kamchatka helps to produce large circular eddy currents from the main southwestward-flowing Kamchatka current. Three such eddies are clearly highlighted by surface ice floe patterns at center. The ice patterns are very difficult (and dangerous) to navigate in an ocean vessel — while the floes may look thin and delicate from the space station vantage point, even the smaller ice chunks are likely several meters across. White clouds at top right are distinguished from the sea ice and snow cover in the image by their high brightness and discontinuous nature. The Kamchatka Peninsula also hosts many currently and historically active stratovolcanoes. Kliuchevskoi Volcano, the highest in Kamchatka (summit elevation 4,835 meters) and one of the most active, had its most recent confirmed eruption in June of 2011, while Karymsky Volcano to the south likely produced ash plumes days before this image was taken; the snow cover near the volcano to the south and east of the summit is darkened, probably due to a cover of fresh ash, or melted away altogether (bottom center). In contrast, Kronotsky Volcano — a "textbook" symmetrical cone-shaped stratovolcano — last erupted in 1923.

Image credit: NASA

Original image/read the blog:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-30/html/…

More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

There’s a Flickr group about Space Station Research. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/

View more than 400 photos like this in the "NASA Earth Images" Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/

_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin…

By: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Southern Paramushir Island, Kuril Islands, Russia (NASA, International Space Station Science, 05/12/10)

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Southern Paramushir Island in the Kuril island chain in Russia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member on the International Space Station. The Kuril island chain consists of a line of volcanoes, many of which have been historically active, that extends from the Kamchatka Peninsula to northern Japan. This line of island volcanoes is known to geologists as an island arc. Island arcs form along an active geologic boundary, typically marked by a deep undersea trench, between two tectonic plates with one being driven beneath the other (a process called subduction). Magma generated by this process feeds volcanoes — and eventually, volcanic islands — over the subduction boundary. Paramushir Island in the northern Kurils is an example of a large island built by several volcanoes over geologic time. This photograph shows the southern end of Paramushir Island after a snowfall. There are four major volcanic centers that form this part of the island. Fuss Peak (center left) is an isolated stratovolcano connected to the main island via an isthmus. The last recorded historical eruption of Fuss Peak was in 1854. The southern tip of the island is occupied by the Karpinsky Group of three volcanic centers. A minor eruption of ash following an earthquake occurred on this part of the island in 1952. The Lomonosov Group to the northeast (center) includes four cinder cones and a lava dome that produced several lava flows extending from the central ridge to the east, northeast, west, and southeast. There have been no recorded historical eruptions from the Lomonosov Group of volcanoes. The most recent volcanic activity (in 2008) occurred at the Chikurachki cone located along the northern coastline of the island at top center. The summit of this volcano (1816 meters above sea level) is the highest on Paramushir Island. Much of the Sea of Okhotsk visible in the image is covered with low clouds that typically form around the islands in the Kuril chain. The clouds are generated by moisture-laden air passing over the cool sea/ocean water and typically wrap around the volcanic islands.

Image/caption credit: NASA

View original image/caption:
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By: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Simushir Island (NASA, International Space Station Science, 09/01/07)

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Simushir Island, Kuril Archipelago, Russian Far East, is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 15 crewmember on the International Space Station. Simushir is a deserted, 5-mile-wide volcanic island in the Kuril island chain, half way between northern Japan and the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. Four volcanoes – Milne, Prevo, Urataman and Zavaritski – have built cones that are high enough to rise above the altitude of green forest. The remaining remnant of Zavaritski volcano is a caldera — a structure formed when a volcano collapses into its emptied magma chamber. A small lake fills the innermost of three nested calderas which make up Zavaritski Caldera. The larger caldera of Urataman Volcano is connected to the sea. A defunct Soviet naval base occupies the northern tip of the island next to this caldera. The islands and volcanoes of the Kuril chain are part of the Pacific Rim of Fire, marking the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate. Low stratus clouds approaching from the northwest (from the Sea of Okhotsk–top left) bank up against the northwest side of the island, making complex cloud patterns. A small finger of cloud can be seen entering the northernmost caldera (Urataman) at sea level. When this image was taken, the cloud layer had stopped at the northwest coast of the island, not flowing over even the low points of the island between the volcanoes. The cloud pattern suggests that the air mass flowed up and over the island, descending on the southeast side. This descending motion was enough–under stable atmospheric conditions–to warm up the atmosphere locally so that a cloud-free zone formed on the southeastern, lee side of the island.

Image credit: NASA

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More about the Crew Earth Observation experiment aboard the International Space Station:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/CE…

More about space station science:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/index.html

There’s a new Flickr group about Space Station Science. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/

By: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center