August 2, 2019. Click image for high-resolution view.
Rising above the clouds and the Sea of Okhotsk, the unoccupied Atlasov Island looks like a distinct dark landform from the view of an astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Formed by Alaid Volcano, Atlasov lies near the southern pointer of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Along the slopes of the main mountain, radial functions—channels and gullies sculpted by liquid water and ice—are highlighted by snow as they extend towards the coastline, which is obscured by low-lying clouds. Brown colors near the top mark locations that are primarily barren due to high slopes and high-altitude winter season snowpack.
Downslope amongst the vegetated surface, a couple of parasitic cones appear on the flanks of the volcano. These little secondary cones are websites where lava has actually taken detours to reach the surface area. The location around the northwest cluster of cones does not have greenery due to a 1972 eruption.
This stratovolcano is not as separated as this image may suggest. It belongs to a volcanic island chain called the Kuril Islands, which extend from northeast Japan to Kamchatka. The islands are positioned above a limit where the Pacific and Okhotsk tectonic plates assemble. At this margin, the denser Pacific Plate subducts listed below the other, causing volcanism. Alaid is still active, with reports of ash plumes as just recently as September 2019.
Astronaut photo ISS060-E-21034 was gotten on August 2, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital video camera utilizing a 400 millimeter lens and is offered by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 64 team. The image has actually been cropped and improved to enhance contrast, and lens artifacts have actually been eliminated. The International Space Station Program supports the lab as part of the ISS National Lab to assist astronauts take images of Earth that will be of the best worth to researchers and the general public, and to make those images easily readily available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be seen at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Andrew Britton, Jacobs, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC.
