Manam, Papau New Guinea

Manam, Papau New Guinea

An unusually clear day in Papua New Guinea provided the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite with this view of the Manam Volcano on May 9, 2006. The volcano is one of the country’s most active volcanoes, and it has erupted frequently since 1616. Its current eruption began on October 24, 2004, when the volcano erupted explosively. Though MODIS has detected many ash plumes from the volcano since that time, none have been so large. Evidence that the volcano was still rumbling on May 9 comes from the tan plume of ash that streams southeast from the mountains’s summit.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response team.