14 DAY TRIAL // Mission controllers managing the NASA Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite recently used the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the spacecraft to image the active stratovolcano Kizimen.
Located in eastern Russia, the landscape feature is constantly growing, as evidenced by the fresh material that is also visible in this image. Its southern and eastern slopes are covered in fresh ash and other debris, which are released from its caldera.
Interestingly enough, the eastern flank is also drenched in lava, but ALI cannot see it due to the large ash clouds obscuring it from view. The lava flow could for example be imaged by infrared satellites, since the molten rock's heat can easily be detected through particulate matter.
This image suggests that the new eruption occurred recently, since it would appear that the ash and lava perturbed a recently-deposited layer of snow on the mountain slopes.