Anatomy of an (Increasingly Angry) Volcano

MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.

Estimated to be about 12,000 years old, Kizimen last experienced a major, explosive eruption event in the late 1920s. But with ash and water vapor shooting as much as 3 miles into the air, aircraft have now been warned against flying in the area of the volcano.

Nearly 8,000 feet high, Kizimen Volcano is made of hardened lava, solifidied ash, and rocks ejected by earlier eruptions. The volcano has experienced multiple periods of long-term growth, and lava domes overlap at the summit.

On January 7, 2011, Kizimen had released continuous ash emissions, though ost of the ash clouds remained below an altitude of 20,000 to 26,000 feet.

Last December, the Kizimen Volcano erupted for the first time in 81 years. This satellite image shows the eruption on the afternoon of January 26, 2011. Fresh brown ash coats the snow-covered landscape south of Kizimen. Several other volcanoes and volcanic calderas, common on the Kamchatka Peninsula, are visible.(

Ash and steam plume from Kizimen Volcano shoots off ash and steam over the Gulf of Kamchatka on the afternoon of February 1, 2011. Ash reached an altitude of 11,000 feet