Russia's Kizimen Volcano
Russia’s Kizimen Volcano. Despite 9 months of continuous activity at Kizimen Volcano, seasonal changes from early fall 2013 (top) to late spring 2014 (lower) dominate the landscape. Located on Russia’s subarctic Kamchatka Peninsula, summers are short at Kizimen.
Early snow covered the upper slopes of the volcano and nearby ridges on September 2, 2013. Almost all of Kamchatka (including Kizimen) was covered in snow on April 14, 2014, almost a month into astronomical spring.
On June 16, only a few days before the start of summer, snow remained on scattered mountainsides, and the twin lakes at the foot of Kizimen remained frozen.The volcano was in a dormant state since an eruption in 1929, but on 2 September 2009 it was reported by Georgina Cooper for the Reuters news agency that the crater lake temperature had risen 10 degrees Celsius in a week and plumes of steam were rising from its flanks. The activity continued throughout 2010, with the formation of new fumaroles reported in November. Seismic activity and ash emission continued to build over the following weeks, and in January 2011 a hotspot was recorded, indicating the presence of lava. In early February 2011 the volcano sent a column of ash several kilometres high
These natural-color images were collected by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8.
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