Brown ash darkens the snow to the southeast of the Shiveluch Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula following another of the volcano’s frequent eruptions. According to the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team, the volcano began an explosive eruption at 13:00 UTC on May 9, 2004, sending a plume of ash up 8,000 meters (26,400 feet) into the atmosphere. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed over nearly 12 hours later, early on May 10, the volcano was still emitting a tan plume of ash, visible over the Pacific Ocean southeast of the volcano.

Both the image above and the full image are at MODIS maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions.

NASA GSFC image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team