Smoke plume towers over Anak Krakatau

Smoke plume towers over Anak Krakatau. Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features a burst of activity from the Indonesian volcano Anak Krakatau, with a smoke plume towering over the peak.

The volcano has experienced more than 50 known eruption periods in the last 2,000 years. 

“The location of the plume suggests that it is volcanic in origin,” said Verity Flower, a USRA volcanologist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Based on the color of the plume, Flower believes it is composed of mainly water vapor and gas. These reflective particles make a plume appear white. 

“Anak Krakatau volcano has displayed these small eruptive bursts periodically through the last few years,” said Flower. “However, it can also display more destructive activity such as tsunami-triggering eruptions.” Krakatoa, or Krakatau (Indonesian: Krakatau), is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group (Krakatoa Archipelago) comprising four islands: two of which, Lang and Verlaten, are remnants of a previous volcanic edifice destroyed in eruptions long before the famous 1883 eruption; another, Rakata, is the remnant of a much larger island destroyed in the 1883 eruption.

The image was captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on April 13, 2020.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Image Credit: NASA