After midnight local time on June 13, 2011, the Nabro Volcano in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea erupted after a series of earthquakes hit the Eritrea-Ethiopia border region, ranging up to magnitude 5.7. The image below shows what the stratovolcano looked like before it erupted.
This is the first time in recorded history that the Nabro Volcano has erupted, spewing ash and large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, the highest levels ever detected from space, according to preliminary estimates from researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The photo above was taken by astronauts onboard the International Space Station in January of this year. The caldera stretches 8 kilometers (5 miles) in diameter and opens to the southwest, with two smaller caldera within the larger structure.
Below are images from the eruption, courtesy of NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory