A volcano that sat dormant for nearly a century erupted suddenly on Saturday and astronauts aboard the International Space Station were able to capture some incredible images of the violent explosion.
One of the images shot by an Expedition 59 astronaut shows smoke billowing from a volcano on the uninhabited island known as Raikoke, located northeast of Japan. The largely dormant volcano first began erupting around 4 a.m. on Saturday, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program activity report. There were at least nine explosions which lasted well into the evening.
Plumes of volcanic smoke can be seen rising between 8 and 10 miles into the skies while a ring of clouds, seemingly formed out of water vapor, surround the volcano.
"What a spectacular image," Simon Carn, a volcanologist at Michigan Tech, said in NASA's statement. "The ring of white puffy clouds at the base of the column might be a sign of ambient air being drawn into the column and the condensation of water vapor. Or it could be a rising plume from interaction between magma and seawater because Raikoke is a small island and flows likely entered the water."
Scientists say they were surprised by the sudden explosion from the volcano on Raikoke, which is about a half-mile wide and around 650-feet deep. Satellites are being used to track the ash as it can pose a hazard to passing aircraft, NASA said.
The last time the Raikoke volcano erupted was in 1924. Before that, it last erupted in 1778, NASA said.
Photo: NASA