Nyamuragira volcano erupted on July 26, 2002, spewing lava high
into the air along with a large plume of steam, ash, and sulfur
dioxide. The 3,053-meter (10,013-foot) volcano is located in
eastern Congo, very near that countrys border with Rwanda.
Nyamuragira is the smaller, more violent sibling of Nyiragongo
volcano, which devastated the town of Goma with its massive
eruption in January 2002. Nyamuragira is situated just 40 km (24
miles) northeast of Goma. This pair of images was acquired by
the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS),
flying aboard NASAs Terra satellite, on July 26. The image on
the left shows the scene in true color. The small purple box in
the upper righthand corner marks the location of Nyamuragiras
hot summit. The false-color image on the right shows the plume
from the volcano streaming southwestward. This image was made
using MODIS channels sensitive at wavelengths from 8.5 to 11
microns. Red pixels indicate high concentrations of sulphur
dioxide. Image courtesy Liam Guml