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A plumage of steam and volcanic gases emanated from the Pagan Island vent in the northwest Pacific Ocean in this image taken byNASA ’s Aqua satellite on Oct. 16 .
Pagan Island is part of the Mariana Islands archipelago , which lie to the S of Japan and just west of the Mariana Trench , where thedeepest daub on Earth is found . The island is one of the largest and one of themost participating volcanoesin the archipelago , according to the Smithsonian ’s Global Volcanism Program .
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite took this image of a plume of steam and gases rising from the Pagan Island volcano in the northwest Pacific on Oct. 16, 2012.
The island is actually made up of two stratovolcanoes , North and South Pagan . North Pagan ’s summit is 570 metre high and its caldera is 7 km in diameter ; South Pagan is a moment smaller , with a height of 548 molarity and a caldera diameter of 4 km , according to Smithsonian record .
Most of the eruptions on the island in historical times have follow from North Pagan , including the expectant known outbreak , which happen in 1981 and led to the permanent excreting of all 53 inhabitants of the island , according to NASA ’s Earth Observatory . The vent ’s most recent eruption come in 2010 , and the volcano has been dynamic for more than three years .
orbiter are the only means scientist can observe the Pagan volcano as there are no ground - free-base instruments in place to find any seismal rumble from the island . The latest U.S. Geological Survey update on the vent note that there did n’t seem to be any eruptive activity at the vent currently .
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite took this image of a plume of steam and gases rising from the Pagan Island volcano in the northwest Pacific on Oct. 16, 2012.
