Comments on: Terra spots a volcanic plume

By: Voss

Voss — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:14:54 +0000

The name Bezymianny Volcano looks an awful lot like “unnamed volcano” in Russian – “bezimeni vulkan.”

By: Flying sardines

Flying sardines — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:34:40 +0000

^^ Well it is on the world globe and maps.

But yeah, you don’t hear about it too much in the general media.

Awesome volcano picture there. Thanks BA.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:20:56 +0000

Does anyone else know the location of Kamchatka due only to RISK? I don’t think I’ve ever learned about it elsewhere!

By: Dewd

Dewd — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:59:35 +0000

…four minutes later the follow-on shephard spacecraft crashed in the same place, and scientists on Zort analyzing the plume were delighted they had proven the pretty blue planet was loaded with alcohol. After all, it hit Russia….

By: Padawanpooh

Padawanpooh — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:16:15 +0000

Thanks, as always, for the excellent recommendations, Dr Plait.

I can recommend the new British Geological Survey site (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/opengeoscience/) has several excellent sections including an image section called Geoscenic with thousands of gorgeous images taken around the UK – http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/viewHome

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:51:22 +0000

Thanks, Sir Eccles @7

I came here to see if the BA had a comment about the Norwegian mystery-spiral-light-thing.

It’s weird. The details in those long exposure photos makes me think, that it couldn’t simply be a missile that have been spiraling because of some defect. And the videos seems to confirm that the photos are not fakes.

By: MichaelL

MichaelL — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:38:40 +0000

Lord Xenus’ plan is still at work.

By: Regner Trampedach

Regner Trampedach — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:28:47 +0000

Eh – take a look at the original image and go up a bit and you’ll see a bigger plume. That plume comes out of a classic cone-shaped volcano which casts an impressive triangular shadow. And the shadow of that plume is pretty impressive too…
Thanks for the post, Phil.
– Regner

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:25:13 +0000

You are watching the Earth Observatory Image of the Day website.

Coooooooooool.

(with apologies to His Hrabness…)

By: TexasOdysseyCoach (Gene)

TexasOdysseyCoach (Gene) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:41:04 +0000

purrrty!

By: Sir Eccles

Sir Eccles — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:50:28 +0000

I think I see the virgin mary

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html

By: John Keller

John Keller — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:44:04 +0000

Yesterday’s photo was also of a plume,

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=41529

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:42:52 +0000

@Trebuchet – I think it looks like answer 1: more shadow, of a more tenuous portion of the plume. When I look at it, it looks like the annotated part of the shadow is the thicker plume closest to the cone. I think where the shadow goes left and up is where the wind is catching and dissipating the plume.

By: kevbo

kevbo — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:37:03 +0000

That would be cool to see as a 3D image…

(Dr. Tongue’s 3D Plume of DEATH?)

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:10:54 +0000

Great image. I keep hearing the statistic that we’ve only critically explored 25% of the surface of the earth. Much of the terrestrial crust and virtually all of the deep oceans remain unvisited and uncharted. Another such statistic is that we have better data about the surface of the moon than we do about much of the Earth.

I’m not sure how true these statistics are but, even if they’re hugely inaccurate, they still underscore the fact that we have vast amounts to learn about our own world.

By: Trebuchet

Trebuchet — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:09:27 +0000

I’m having a little trouble figuring out something in the picture. Extending northwest is a brown shadowed area, a different color than the distinct dark gray shadow that’s annotated. Is this:
1) More shadow, of a more tenuous area of the plume,
2) A layer of eject staining the snow of the adjacent mountains,
3) Perhaps a shadow of some high clouds?

Anyhow, cool picture. We in the Northwest saw a lot of pictures (or actually, a lot of instances of one picture) of Bezymianni in the early 1980′s due to the similarity of it’s 1950′s eruption, collapse, and dome formation to that of Mt. St. Helens.

By: Colm

Colm — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:04:46 +0000

A plume has been spotted? On the Earth?

Curse you, Moon people! This means war!