Astounding volcano activity photographed from space

This May 23, 2006, photo released by NASA shows the eruption of Cleveland Volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, as photographed by an Expedition 13 crew member on the International Space Station. The image captures the ash plume of the very short-lived eruption. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center)

In this June 16, 2010 satellite image provided by NASA, Papua New Guinea’s Manam Volcano releases a thin, faint plume, as clouds cluster at the volcano’s summit. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite took this image. The clouds may result from water vapor from the volcano, but may also have formed independent of volcanic activity. The volcanic plume appears as a thin, blue-gray veil extending toward the northwest over the Bismarck Sea.

Seen here on on June 12, 2009 in the beginning stages of eruption is Sarychev volcano. This was the sixth eruption since 1946, making it one the busiest volcanoes on Russia's Kuril Islands.

This image provided by NASA shows an image taken by a NASA MODIS satellite acquired at 1:15 a.m. EDT on May 22, 2011 shows the ash plume from the Grimsvotn volcano casts shadow to the west. The Grimsvotn volcano began erupting on Saturday, May 21 sending clouds of ash high into the air. The amount of ash spewing from the volcano tapered off dramatically on Tuesday, however, said Elin Jonasdottir, a forecaster at Iceland's meteorological office. The blue dots are data dropouts probably caused by the very bad light in the shadow of the plume.

Plumes of smoke and ash rise from Sicily's Mount Etna, center, in this satellite image from Monday, Oct. 28, 2002. As rivers of lava poured down its slopes, Mount Etna spewed thick clouds of ash and magma for a third day Tuesday, prompting officials to close some schools. Satellite photos showed the ash was carried as far away as Libya in northern Africa, 350 miles south of Mount Etna. (AP Photo/HO, NASA,

This satellite image taken on Monday Jan. 30, 2006, courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC via the Alaska Volcano Observatory / U.S. Geological Survey, a steam and ash cloud from Augustine Volcano near Homer, Alaska, lower left, can be seen drifting toward the Kenai Peninsula, seen in the upper right. An unbroken plume of ash has been spewing from the uninhabited volcanic island 75 miles southwest of Homer, Alaska since Saturday with explosions thrusting particles almost five miles into the skies around south-central Alaska.

This image provided by NASA's MODIS instrument on board the Terra satellite shows volcanic ash and steam billowing from the Chaiten Volcano in southern Chile, drifting across Argentina and dissipating over the Atlantic Ocean, Saturday, May 3, 2008. The Chaiten Volcano sprung to life Friday for the first time in thousands of years.

This photo of Shiveluch volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia was taken on September 7, 2010 by the Earth Observing-1 satellite. Three days earlier, ash plumes had risen as high as 21,300 feet. This is one of the area's largest and most active volcanoes.

A photo released by NASA is a June 4, 2011, photo of Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcano was made by the MODI Aqua satellite shortly after the eruption began sahowing the brown plume rising above the clouds. The eruption has forced thousands from their homes, grounded airline flights in southern Argentina and coated ski resorts with a gritty layer of dust instead of snow

This natural-color satellite image provided by NASA and acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on July 8, 2011 shows the ash plume of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile. The volcano's eruption resulted in grounded flights across the lower third of South America for most of the winter tourist season. Lodges and restaurants in Bariloche and Villa La Angostura normally filled with skiers, are empty. With airport runways, Andean slopes and sheep and cattle ranches coated in ash, the local economy has been devastate

Volcanic ashes from Shinmoedake peak, located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, is seen in southern Japan, in this NASA satellite image taken and released February 3, 2011. More than 1,000 people in southern Japan have been urged to evacuate as the volcano picked up its activities, spewing ashes and small rocks into the air and disrupting airline operations, a municipal official said on Monday. Image taken February 3, 2011

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted explosively on April 14, 2010 and resulting ash fallout disrupted travel across Europe. In this photo taken nearly a month later by the Terra satellite, a massive plume is still visible 530 miles away.