ISS031-E-41959 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
Much of the sea surface surrounding the volcano has a silver-gray appearance. This mirror-like appearance is due to sunglint, where light reflects off the sea surface and is scattered directly towards the observer on the International Space Station. Sunglint is largely absent from a zone directly to the west of the volcano, most likely due to surface wind or water currents that change the roughness—and light scattering properties—of the water surface. (Note that the image is oriented so that north is to the lower left.)
Volcanoes in the Kurils and similar island arcs in the Pacific “ring of fire”, are fed by magma generated along the boundary between two tectonic plates, where one plate is being driven beneath the other (a process known as subduction). Alaid Volcano has been historically active, with the most recent confirmed explosive activity in 1996.
