On October 23, 2006, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the Soufriere Hills Volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. In this image, the volcano emits a plume that blows westward over the ocean, mingling with nearby clouds. Unlike the opaque white clouds, however, the volcanic plume is darker and more translucent. MODIS caught the volcano in a period of ash and/or steam emissions that continued intermittently for days.
Soufriere Hills is a stratovolcano composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, ash, and rock. It occupies the southern half of the island of Montserrat, and it began a period of serious eruptive activity in 1995.
A 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of Soufriere Hills is available for use with Google Earth.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
