Today’s Image of the Day comes thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at the Sakurajima Volcano in Kyushu, Japan.

Sakurajima formed over 13,000 years ago and is now one of Japan’s most active volcanoes. Its summit is 1,117 meters high and is lined with several craters.

To the north is the Kita-dake crater, which last erupted roughly 5,00 years ago.

On the south side, the Minami-dake and Showa craters experience frequent eruptions and are responsible for the plume of ash visible in the photo.

Sakurajima (Japanese: 桜島, literally “Cherry Blossom Island”) is an active stratovolcano, formerly an island and now a peninsula, in Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan. The lava flows of the 1914 eruption connected it with the Ōsumi Peninsula. It is the most active volcano in Japan.

The volcanic activity still continues, dropping volcanic ash on the surroundings, which continues as of September, 2020. Earlier eruptions built the white sand highlands in the region. The most recent eruption started on November 12, 2019. On September 13, 2016 a team of experts from Bristol University and the Sakurajima Volcano Research Centre in Japan suggested that the volcano could have a major eruption within 30 years; since then two eruptions have occurred

This image was captured by an astronaut on board the International Space Station.

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: NASA Earth Observatory