I seem to be having a fairly volcanic week, so whilst we’re on the subject of volcanoes in the news, someone over at Nasa’s Earth Observatory got a satellite to snap Jabal al-Tair in the Red Sea, which erupted at the beginning of last week (click for the high-res version):
Lava flows from the current eruption are probably the darker patches in the north-east quadrant. This volcano is situated on an oceanic rift zone, where decompressional melting produces basaltic melts which are both less viscous and less gassy than the likes of Mt St Helens or Vesuvius. Thus, runny lava flows are much more likely than explosive pyroclastic flows, although it seems that several Yemeni soldiers stationed on the island were still taken unawares.
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