Science

12 gorgeous, terrifying photos of volcanoes erupting — as seen from space

Rebecca Harrington

2016-04-12T19:24:00Z

You can't exactly visit a volcano when it's erupting, or even threatening to. That's why satellites are a great way for scientists to monitor volcanic activity at a safe distance — all the way from space.

Using thermal and infrared imaging, they can create false-color photos of volcanoes to see where the hot spots are. This can help scientists predict when they might erupt.

andes mtns chile satellite — This false-color image of the Andes Mountains shows lava flows in dark purple and vegetation in green. Areas where there is still no vegetation are in blue. NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems/ASTER Science Team

Once a volcano does explode, satellites can also help track where the lava and smoke plumes are heading.

Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft has imaged about 99% of the Earth's surface. The ASTER has caught many a photo of volcanoes erupting among the 2.95 million images it has captured since it launched in 1999.

Satellite images of volcanoes are extremely helpful and even beautiful, but they also remind us of nature's sometimes destructive power. Here are 12 of the most amazing photos of erupting volcanoes ASTER has taken from space:

Red-hot lava flows out of Mount Etna — Europe's most active volcano — in Italy in 2001.

This infrared image of the 2001 Etna eruption shows sulfur dioxide, seen in magenta, cascading out of the volcano in a plume over the city of Catania.

In November 2002, Etna was erupting again. The volcano's ash cloud blew over the Catania airport in Sicily.

There are several active volcanoes on the Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia. Two, shown glowing red with heat in this infrared image, are called Bezymianny (bottom) and Klyuchevskaya (top).

Source: Russian Institute of Volcanology and Seismology

On the same Russian peninsula, the Karymsky volcano was captured erupting in 2006. You can see the giant ash plume flowing to the east (it looks like a triangular shadow), and even spot some lava in the center.

The peninsula's most active volcano, Kliuchevskoi, constantly causes problems for air travel with its eruptions and ash clouds.

When the Kizimen volcano on the peninsula erupted in 2011, its summit dome collapsed. You can see hot block-and-ash flowing from the summit in red here.

This nighttime thermal image shows Anatahan Volcano in the central Mariana Islands erupting in 2008. The darker the pink, the hotter the ground.

These six infrared images taken from 2000 to 2001 show lava flowing into the water at Pu'u O'o on the southeast side of the Island of Hawaii.

The Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat in the Caribbean was caught erupting in 2002, sending an ash plume high into the sky. More than half of the island's residents have been evacuated due to the volcano's ongoing activity.

This nighttime thermal infrared image of the Chiliques volcano in Chile (left) shows hot spots you couldn't catch with normal imaging in the daytime (right).

Mount Sinabung in Indonesia erupted in 2014, and ASTER captured this infrared image that shows vegetation in red, and the ash plume in grey. NASA called it an "angry" volcano.

Source: NASA

NASA