NASA Earth Observatory Spotted ‘Glowing’ Lava Lakes on Africa’s Most Active Volcanoes as They Erupted Simultaneously
Satellites are immensely important tools that help experts monitor Earth from above as they transmit data and images. One such incident captured by satellites in 2014 showed some activity in simultaneously erupting volcanoes in Congo, giving insights to scientists, stated Live Science.
The image revealed that intense heat was emanating from lava lakes of these volcanoes. The volcanoes were identified to be Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo. The former is a dome-shaped shield volcano, which typically reaches a height of 10,033 feet. The latter is a stratovolcano, which exhibits a steep cone that towers at 11,385 feet. Both of them have been deemed as one of the most active and deadly volcanoes in the world. These volcanic mountains are just six miles apart from each other and are situated north of the city of Goma.
Some of their most recent eruptions have been very intense, according to experts. In 2011, Nyamuragira shot out a 1,300-foot-tall fountain of lava. This was deemed the largest single outburst observed in the region for at least a century.
Nyiragongo released the fastest lava flow, to date recorded in history, in January 1977. This lava flow resulted in the deaths of 2,000 people in Goma and the surrounding places. The mountain again released deadly lava in January 2002, which took 250 lives and left 100,000 people homeless with its impact. The lava flow of 2021 also caused 31 deaths, but this time, many were indirect casualties. These indirect deaths happened due to traffic collisions, as people tried to escape from the region. Hence, monitoring them is extremely important for the safety of civilians and communities.
As per records, these volcanoes have erupted around 60 times since 1900, stated The News. The photo was captured in 2014 by a satellite. It was just a few weeks after Nyamuragira started erupting for the first time since 2012. This eruption stopped in May 2016, but it restarted again on two more occasions, in November 2016 and later in April 2018. The latter eruption is still ongoing. Nyiragongo has continued to erupt since May 2002 with no breaks.
The image was published by the NASA Earth Observatory. As per the organization, Landsat 8 took the photo on June 30, 2014. The image has been determined to be in false color, in which shortwave-infrared, near-infrared, and green light represent the colors red, green, and blue, respectively. This methodology was used because shortwave and near-infrared light makes more way through hazy skies than visible light. Therefore, this kind of image can supply more insights on surfaces captured from space, compared to natural-color images.
In the wavelength of shortwave-infrared, hot surfaces appear to glow, say experts. Therefore, in the image, the lava lakes present inside the summit craters of the volcanoes seem to be bright red. The vegetation around the volcanoes is represented in bright green.
For experts, the lava lake at Nyiragongo was peculiar because stratovolcanoes typically do not exhibit this feature, stated The News. Past studies have claimed that at several points across two decades, the fiery pool created by these volcanoes became the biggest lava lake on Earth. The mountains have been responsible for 40% of volcanic eruptions that have been recorded in Africa, according to Live Science.