Space Station photo outlines ice, snow patterns on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula

Published: Monday, April 09, 2012

By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune

A photo taken from the International Space Station provides a bird's eye view of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and waters off its eastern shoreline.

NASA/Johnson Space Center/International Space StationSnow and Ice form patterns on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and the adjacent Pacific Ocean

On March 15, snow covered much of the area, including three stratovolcanoes, volcanoes made up of layers of lava, pumice and volcanic ash.

To the north is Kliuchevskoi Volcano, the highest in Kamchatka at 15,863 feet. It's most recent eruption was in June 2011.

The southernmost summit is Karymsky Volcano, which is likely to have produced ash plumes in the days just before the photo was taken, as the snow on its south and east sides are darkened by fresh ash or melted away.

In the middle is the cone-shaped Kronotsky Volcano, which hasn't erupted since 1923.

In the Pacific Ocean east of the peninsula, circular eddy currents are visible, thanks to ice floes that grind against each other, producing smaller chunks of ice that are moved by wind and currents.

The photo was released Sunday by NASA's Earth Observatory.

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