Volcanic Activity at Nyiragongo

Volcanic Activity at Nyiragongo

A plume puffed from Nyiragongo Volcano on August 3, 2010, as the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite passed overhead and captured this natural-color image. The plume’s white color suggests that, of the visible components in the plume, steam predominated.

Located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nyiragongo is a steep-sloped stratovolcano that overlaps two older stratovolcanoes, Baruta and Shaheru. Nyiragongo reaches a height of 3,470 meters (11,384 feet). Lava flows from Nyiragongo caused numerous fatalities in 1977 and 2002.

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott.