SPACEPHOTOS

The islands of Japan are shown clearly off the coast of North and South Korea, China, and Russia in this true-color image. Running down through the islands are a string of mountains that make up part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that stretches in a series of arcs from New Zealand, through Indonesia, up through the Philippines, Japan, the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia), across the Pacific Ocean via the Aleutian Islands, and down the coast of the Americas. Seventy-five percent of the world volcanoes are in this ring, making it the most volcanically-active region on the planet.Also shown in this image are a number of fires, which are marked with red dots. A few fires were detected in Japan, China, and North Korea, but the majority were detected in Russia Primorskiy-Kray region. This true-color image was acquired on May 1, 2003.