Tagged: Earth

Airglow, Gegenschein, and Milky Way

As far as the eye could see, it was a dark night at Las Campanas Observatory in the southern Atacama desert of Chile. But near local midnight on April 11, this mosaic of 3 minute long exposures...

Volcano and Aurora in Iceland

Sometimes both heaven and Earth erupt. In Iceland in 1991, the volcano Hekla erupted at the same time that auroras were visible overhead. Hekla, one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, has erupted at least 20 times over the past millennium, sometimes causing great destruction.

A triangular shadow of a large volcano

Why does the shadow of this volcano look like a triangle? The Mount Teide volcano itself does not have the strictly pyramidal shape that its geometric shadow might suggest. The triangle shadow phenomena is not unique to the Mt. Teide, though,...

Erupting volcano Anak Krakatau

A volcano on Krakatoa is still erupting. Perhaps most famous for the powerfully explosive eruption in 1883 that killed tens of thousands of people, ash from a violent eruption might also have temporarily altered Earth’s climate as long as 1500 years ago. In 1927, eruptions caused smaller Anak Krakatau to rise from the sea, and the emerging volcanic island continues to grow at an average rate of 2 cm per day. The latest eruption of Anak Krakatau started in 2008 April and continues today. In this picture, Anak Krakatau is seen erupting from Rakata, the main island of the Krakatoai group. High above, stars including the Big Dipper are clearly apparent.

Extremely dangerous beauty of volcanoes (40 pictures)

The pictures of volcanoes, especially during their eruptions, when clouds of volcanic dust shoot up in the sky, hiding the sun, and tons of burning magma burst from the crater to flow down the hill destroying everything on its way, are really magnificent. The mixture of danger, risk, and some primeval excitement – this is what you are likely to feel looking at the pictures of volcanoes we have prepared today.