This is the Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. Although seismic shocks had been felt on 30 year intervals for most of the 20th Century, the volcano was still considered inactive. However it became active with devastating effect on July 18, 1995, eventually causing two thirds of the inhabitants to evacuate the island. Its eruptions have rendered most of the island uninhabitable, and yet people still continue to live there.

In the satellite image you can see where the abandoned capital city of Plymouth used to lie, buried underneath the grey area on the southwest of the island, and through the clouds you can also see the glowing red lava in the volcano’s crater. Scary stuff!

Thanks to Robert Sargant for this one

Here is an absolutely beautiful image of Popocatépetl, an active volcano near Mexico City, whose name means ‘Smoking Mountain’. It is an enormous volcano, standing at 5,452 metres, making it the second highest peak in Mexico after another volcano, Pico de Orizaba (5,610m).

There’s a good Aztec myth surrounding Popocatépetl too. From Wikipedia:

Popocatépetl was a warrior who loved Iztaccíhuatl. Iztaccíhuatl’s father sent him to war in Oaxaca, promising him his daughter as his wife if he returned (which Iztaccíhuatl father presumed he would not). Iztaccíhuatl was told her lover was dead and she died of grief. When he returned, he in turn died of grief over losing her. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains. Iztaccíhuatl’s mountain was called “Sleeping Woman” because it bears a resemblance to a woman laying on her back. He became the volcano Popocatépetl, raining fire on Earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved.

There’s also a map on Wikipedia of the major volcanoes of Mexico.

Thanks to Freddy M and Saul.

Larry pointed us towards this excellent little volcano island in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 400 miles southwest of the tip of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Great crater Larry, good work!

Unfortunately here’s no map data of any of the islands in this area. Can anyone work out where this is? Too late, I think I worked it out Looks like this is Barcena on the island of San Benedicto (one of the Revilligigedo Islands). Apparently Barcena was born on August 1, 1952 and it reached a height of 300 metres in only 12 days! By mid September of that year it had mostly ceased erupting. There’s a photo of it in action here.

It looks a bit like some sort of Bond-esque, super-evil Pacific hideaway doesn’t it?

Pacaya is an active volcano in Guatemala. Between 1860 and 1961 the volcano was dormant, but then it re-awoke and has been pretty much active ever since, in fact it sometimes showers the nearby city of Antigua with ash.

The volcano is a popular tourist attraction, and in the late 1990s it became notorious for frequent armed robberies on its slopes, so now tour groups generally visit accompanied by armed guards (as if being on an active volcano wasn’t dangerous enough!)

Pacaya is part of a chain of volcanoes in Guatemala, but you can see in our thumbnail that from up here it’s definitely the most interesting of the lot. Check out the fantastic glowing rim of the crater!

The Hawaiian Islands are at the end of a chain of volcanoes that began to form more than 70 million years ago. Each Hawaiian island is made of at least one volcano, and the island of Hawai`i, the southernmost of the Hawaiian islands, consists of five volcanoes, and is the location of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Here’s a look at three of the most interesting volcanoes on the island. I didn’t bother doing them all as unfortunately none of the island is in high-resolution yet

Mauna Kea is Hawaii’s tallest volcano at 4,205 meters. It’s so tall, that snow forms on it’s upper reaches each winter (several meters deep!) and the name itself means ‘White Mountain’. It hasn’t erupted for around 4,500 years however.

Mauna Loa is Earth’s largest volcano, and fittingly it’s name means ‘Long Mountain’. It covers more than half of Hawai`i and accounts for 85 percent of the land-mass of all the Hawaiian islands combined. It is also considered one of the world’s most active volcanoes having erupted 33 times since 1843, most recently in 1984. Mauna Loa is certain to erupt again, and is carefully monitored for signs of volcanic activity.

Kilauea is perhaps the most active volcano in the world, it’s been erupting continually since 1983! Perhaps this is where it gets it’s name, which translates to ’spewing’ or ‘much spreading’. Shown in our thumbnail is the cinder-and-spatter cone of Pu‘u‘Ō‘ō, which looks fantastic from up here with a plume of steam stretching southwards, and even huge areas of glowing orange lava!

There’s lots more fascinating information about all volcanoes on the island available at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website.

Many thanks to Alex, Gayle Olson, Fernando Gilbert, Mark Hardman, Luke Gibson, neil, Dakota, SlantyOD, Layla, Keith, Adam, Kirk, Jim McKeeth, JP, RPirolli, Kyoji, Jason, Eric, Clinton Neville, Nelson, Tony Tabor, Sam, Charles Sieg and Adam Crownoble.

Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua has two volcanoes on it (as if one wasn’t enough). Shown in our thumbnail is the still active ‘Concepción’ (1610 meters), and the other to the south-west is the long dormant ‘Madera’ (1394 meters).

The volcanoes are joined by a low isthmus to form the island, which is home to 35,000 people. Many of these people are farmers, as the volcanic ash has made the soil of the island extremely fertile.

There’s loads of volcanoes in Nicaragua, but like their most active Masaya, none of them are in high-resolution. Yet, we hope!

Thanks to Julien Feldman, Anne Mathews and Larry

Next up is the Amboy Crater, an extinct cinder cone in California’s Mojave Desert. It lies within a 70 square kilometre lava field, and it looks pretty impressive from up here!

Thanks to Art Jones.

Today we are proud to present to you, the 1st Annual* Google Sightseeing Volcano Day! Yes that’s right, we have an entire day of posts lined up entirely devoted to volcanoes.

• Please note: This event may not actually occur annually

To get us started, we have the 3426 metre Mount Hood in Oregon. Snow-capped all year round, the volcano hasn’t erupted since 1782, but is considered potentially active. Mount Hood has eleven glaciers and five ski areas, including the only ski area in the U.S. that’s open 12 months of the year.

Unfortunately, like most of the volcanoes we’ll be posting today, Mount Hood is not shown in high-resolution yet. Maybe by the time we get to the 2nd annual volcano awards…

Thanks to david poznik and sunilonln.