There were two materials since the beginning of the eruption. The dark one was magnetic (see here). It was much darker than the light brown seen in this image. I’m not sure if it is the same.

The dark material flowing to the west of the erupting vent is a lava flow (probably covered in ash, also).

Although many pushbroom imagers point to the nadir, some have wide swaths and do look at the surface from an oblique angle. Many earth observing instruments are limb sounders. The imagers on geostationary satellites see more or less an entire hemisphere so they see quite a large area of the earth at oblique angles. Dem danged instruments aren’t all alike.

I had a little disappointment when I realised my mistake, since Taupo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taupo_Volcano) is an incredible volcano and it would have been lovely to view it from orbit, but the spectacular photos of other volcanos more than countered the disappointment!

I’d call the color more grey than tan, or, as a home decorating catalog I once saw described it, greige.

Fortunately I use noscript, so the pictures were arranged vertically, and I simply scrolled through them using two fingers on my trackpad. Much easier than two stupid arrows.

Excuse me, I believe you mean “enhaphaestenate”.

I agree though, these are some spectacular photos.