SPACEPHOTOS

Mount Oyama is a 820-meter-high (2,700 feet) volcano on the island of Miyake-Jima, Japan, about 8 km (5 miles) in diameter. In late June 2000, a series of earthquakes alerted scientists to possible volcanic activity. On June 27, authorities evacuated 2,600 people, and on July 8 the volcano began erupting and erupted five times over that week. The dark gray blanket covering green vegetation in the image is the ash deposited by prevailing northeasterly winds between July 8 and 17. This island is about 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Tokyo and is part of the Izu chain of volcanic islands that runs south from the main Japanese island of Honshu. Miyake-Jima is home to 3,800 people. The previous major eruptions of Mount Oyama occurred in 1983 and 1962, when lava flows destroyed hundreds of houses. An earlier eruption in 1940 killed 11 people. This image is a perspective view created by combining a July 17, 2000 image with an elevation model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Vertical relief is exaggerated, and the image includes cosmetic adjustments to clouds and image color to enhance clarity of terrain features.