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Where is it?Fernandina Island , Galápagos Islands [ -0.3738657 , -91.5395414 ] .
What ’s in the photo?The erupting La Cumbre volcano .
Lava has been bleeding down the slopes of La Cumbre volcano on Fernandina Island since it began erupting in early March.
Which satellite took the photo?Landsat 8 .
When was it taken?March 7 , 2024 .
This spectacular image enamour the initial lava flow rate from the on-going eruption at La Cumbre volcano . The active scissure is locate on Fernandina Island — the third largest and most volcanically active island in the Galápagos Islands , around 700 miles ( 1,125 klick ) off the slide of mainland Ecuador .
At night, the glow of the eruption has been visible to passing ships. This photo was taken on March 3.
On March 2 , La Cumbre ignite for the first sentence since 2020,NASA ’s Earth Observatory reported , when lava began slow seeping out of a fissure near the top of the vent ’s 4,850 - foot - tall ( 1,480 meters ) southeast wing and dribbling down the mountain ’s Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree - handle slopes .
Since then , lava has continually rain cats and dogs out of the vent , and in early April , the river of molten rock reached the island ’s coastline around 6 Admiralty mile ( 10 kilometer ) from La Cumbre , theGalápagos Conservancy reported . As the lava encounter the ocean , large plumes of steam come up from the wave as the water cool off the superheated rock .
The eruption is still ongoing as of April 25 , with no remainder in quite a little , according to the Smithsonian Institute’sGlobal Volcanism Program .
Related:12 amazing images of Earth from space
La Cumbre currently irrupt around once every four years and is locate straight off above the magma hot spot , bang as a Mickey Mantle plume , that birthed this uninhabited Pacific island and the balance of the Galápagos .
The volcano has a large crater , or caldera , at its summit that harbors a permanent crater lake . This lake attracts a wide variety of beast including tens of grand of Galápagos country iguana ( Conolophus subcristatus ) that lay their eggs in nests within the caldera .
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During the first few days of the current eruption , satellites also detected invisible plume of toxic volcanic natural gas rising above Fernandina . instrument on board both the Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 orbiter show gamy levels of sulfur dioxide being belched out by the volcano , according to Earth Observatory . However , the natural gas level did not remain very mellow for long .
La Cumbre has previously experienced much more violent eruptions . The most recent deterrent example was in 1968 , when urine from the volcano ’s volcanic crater lake mixed with submerged magma , creating a powerful detonation . However , this is unlikely to fall out during the current eruption , according to Earth Observatory .
