The Anatahan Volcano emitted a plume of volcanic ash and/or steam in late June 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture on June 26. In this image, a faint plume blows away from the small volcanic island, over the Pacific. The ash plume is slightly darker than the region’s bright white clouds.
Volcanic plumes often interact with sunlight, oxygen, water, and dust particles to form a substance known as vog, short for volcanic smog. According to the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency, this emission from Anatahan produced a cloud of vog west of the volcano’s summit.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of Anatahan.
