Ash Plumes from Sarychev Peak Volcano, Russia48.0N 153.2E
Sarychev Peak is a stratovolcano covering almost the entirety of Matua Island in the Kuril Islands, which belong to Russia’s Sakhalin Oblast, south of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is a young, highly symmetrical stratovolcanic cone with an elevation of 1496 m.
One of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Islands, on June 12, 2009, it released two large ash plumes. One plume of ash spread about 105 km (65 mi) toward the west-northwest, reported the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency, and the other reached 250 km (155 mi) toward the east-southeast.
The animated image shows the spread of the ash, visible amongst the clouds, between June 13th and 15th, 2009. In the image taken on the 13th, the ash is darkest and most concentrated nearest the peak of the volcano.
The other images focus on the same region, south of the Kamchatka Peninsula, on a cloudless day exactly one month before the ash plumes were sent up into the air. In the close-up of the Kuril Islands, Matua is the large island closest to the top. The photograph shows Sarychev Peak as seen from another of the Kuril Islands.