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Where is it?Momotombo volcano , Nicaragua [ 12.42296956 , -86.54492173 ]
What ’s in the photo?A with child cloud of toxic gas emerging from the active volcano
Nicaragua’s Momotombo volcano most recently erupted in February 2016 but continued to spit out clouds of toxic gas for several years afterward.
Who took the photo?An unnamed astronaut on board the International Space Station
When was it taken?July 10 , 2018
In this spaceman photo , an infamous Nicaraguan vent cough up toxic cloud of gas a few years after its first eruptions for more than a century .
Locals watch lava pour down Momotombo during an eruption on Dec. 2, 2015.
Momotombo is an active stratovolcano that sits on the northern shore of Lake Managua in west Nicaragua . Stereographers who surveyed the region nickname the vent " the smoke terror " in 1902 , according toNASA ’s Earth Observatory . It is relatively young for a volcano — around 4,500 years old — and its prime is 4,167 infantry ( 1,270 measure ) above ocean level , according to theSmithsonian Institution ’s Global Volcanism Program .
Momotombo has had several major clap during the last 500 year , including a massive outburst in 1610 that trigger off an earthquake that destroyed the nearby Spanish - controlled city of León . The residents of the city relocated and build the mod version of León , which is currently Nicaragua ’s secondly largest metropolis , while the ruination of the old Ithiel Town arelisted as a UNESCO world inheritance website .
The volcano is currently in an igneous phase angle and had major outburstsin November 2015and February 2016 . Before then , the vent had not erupted since 1905 . However , there has been no significant bodily function at the vent since 2021 , agree to the Global Volcanism Program .
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In the exposure , the vent appear to be coughing up a swarm from its summit . This cloud likely contains a mix of water vapor and toxic natural gas like the foul - smell H sulphide , which has stained the volcano ’s summit chickenhearted over thousands of years . The volcano frequently spits out these cloud in the age before and after an eruption but has hold on in late age .
In the prototype , two black lava theatre of operations sit at the base of the passel , which were left behind when molten stone flowed down lava channel in the vent ’s flanks during previous eruptions , according toNASA ’s Earth Observatory .
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Momotombo is part of the Central American Volcanic Arc , which stretches along the continent ’s west coast from Mexico to Panama , and is surrounded by several other vent , including a smaller sister stratovolcano nominate Momotombito — a roughly 1,150 feet - tall ( 350 m ) island vent in the middle of Lake Managua that was take form at the same time as Momotombo .
The area surrounding Momotombo is full of modest openings , fuck as fumaroles , where volcanic throttle and steam rise up through Earth ’s surface . As a termination , most of the surrounding country was turned into a geothermal plant life in 1983 , which generates electricity from this cloak-and-dagger activity .
