Volcanic Activity on Mt. Asama, Japan

Volcanic Activity on Mt. Asama, Japan

Volcanic ash covers the upper slopes of Mount Asama, the most active volcano on the island of Honshu, Japan. The dark ash is clearly visible against the bright white snow. Asama has ejected ash up to 4,600 meters (15,000 feet) in a series of small eruptions starting on January 21, 2009. The Remote Sensing Instrument (RSI) aboard Taiwan’s Formosat-2 satellite acquired this natural-color image of the volcano on the morning of February 11, 2009.

Formosat image © 2009 Dr. Cheng-Chien Liu, National Cheng-Kung University, and Dr. An-Ming Wu, National Space Organization, Taiwan. Caption by Robert Simmon.