AI Insight
The NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite captured time-lapse imagery of an eruption at Krasheninnikov volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, which became active in early August 2025 following an 8.8-magnitude earthquake on July 30. The northern crater began erupting for the first time in nearly 500 years, producing eastward-flowing lava flows that the satellite's synthetic aperture radar has been monitoring to track landscape changes.
Why it matters
This demonstrates the capability of the NISAR mission to monitor volcanic activity and landscape deformation in near real-time, which is valuable for hazard assessment and disaster response. The apparent seismic triggering of a long-dormant volcano also provides important data on earthquake-volcano interactions.
Understand the Science
Like tendrils on a vine, lava spreads out from the northern crater of Krasheninnikov, a volcano pair on the Pacific coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. On July 30, 2025, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the nearby ocean, apparently jolting one of the two volcanoes awake. A few days later, for the first time in nearly five centuries, Krasheninnikov started erupting. Since then, the northern volcano has been spilling a steady, eastward-flowing field of molten rock and debris, and the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission has been tracking the changes in the landscape.
Source: US-India satellite captures time-lapse video of volcanic eruption