A clear summer day over Washington state provided the
International Space Station crew the chance to observe Mt.
Rainier—a volcano that overlooks the Seattle metropolitan area and
the 2.5 million people who live there. In addition to its presence on
the Seattle skyline, Mt. Rainier also looms large among volcanoes in the
United States.
It is the highest volcano in the Cascades, with an elevation of
4,392 meters (14,411 feet) above sea level at the summit of the
Columbia Crest. Emmons Glacier on the eastern slope is the largest
glacier in the lower 48 states. Nisqually Glacier has been actively
monitored for more than a century, making it the longest-monitored
glacier in the United States. Rainier is an active volcano located next
to a large population center, supports several large glaciers, and
presents the largest volcanic hazard in the country. While the last
recorded eruption of Rainier occurred in 1840, the volcano is
continuously monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascade
Volcano Observatory.
This view shows off Rainier’s spectacular landforms, including
details of the approximately 400-meter-diameter (1,280-foot) summit
crater and the glaciers that radiate from the summit. The large debris
fields that fill the valleys draining the glaciers comprise one of
Rainier’s geohazards: potential landslides and debris flows
triggered by earthquakes, eruptions, magma-water interactions, or sudden
snow or ice melting. Also visible are roads leading to Paradise, an
area on the mountain’'s south side that provides ready access to
trails and spectacular vistas of the glaciers.
Astronaut photograph ISS011-E-11428 was acquired July 31, 2005, with a
Kodak 760C digital camera with a 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS
Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis
Group, Johnson Space Center. The International Space
Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take
pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and
the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet.
Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at
the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut
Photography of Earth.
note: web sites at Johnson Space Center are temporarily shut down due to Hurricane Rita