Iceland Eyjafjallajokull Volcano: Images of a river of ash among the clouds

After more than a week of relatively subdued activity in late April, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull Volcano began a fresh round of explosive ash eruptions in the first week of May.

Picture available from ESA Earth Observatory site

On the morning of May 6, 2010, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of a thick plume of ash blowing east and then south from the volcano.

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Clouds bracket the edges of the scene, but the dark blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean show in the middle, and above them, a rippling, brownish-yellow river of ash.

MORE: ESA plans new instruments to monitor volcanic ash clouds on future Earth Observation spacecraft.

WEBCAM View: Eyjafjallajokull volcano, including Infrared views