Earth from Space - Image Description

In 1985, the small Indonesian island of Sangeang Api (for scale, the island is 13 km wide) off the northeast coast of Sumbawa began to erupt. Within a month, the 1250 inhabitants had evacuated to Sumbawa. The eruption lasted until 1988. The lava and pyroclastic flows--the wide channel running west from the summit--are still easily traced on this image taken last week by Space Shuttle astronauts (STS-112) . Today, the island's summit crater (1949 m) produces intermittent steam clouds.

Compare this photograph to an earlier Space Shuttle photograph taken in November 1985.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.