Reunion Island
This radar image shows the volcanic island of Reunion, about 700 km (434 miles) east of Madagascar in the southwest Indian Ocean. The southern half of the island is dominated by the active volcano, Piton de la Fournaise. This is one of the world's most active volcanoes, with more than 100 eruptions in the last 300 years. The most recent activity occurred in the vicinity of Dolomieu Crater, shown in the lower center of the image within a horseshoe-shaped collapse zone. Recent lava flows appear in shades of red, purple and orange. Light green areas are heavily vegetated forest, while much of the purple area near the coast is farmland. The radar illumination is from the left side of the image and dramatically emphasizes the precipitous cliffs at the edges of the central canyons of the island. These canyons are remnants from the collapse of formerly active parts of the volcanoes that built the image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 5, 1994.
Size: 2004px × 3000px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: active, aerial, aperture, crater, de, dolomieu, endeavour, formation, fournaise, geoglogy, geography, geological, image, imaging, indian, island, la, lava, ocean, photography, piton, radar, radar-/-band, reunion, satellite, shuttle, sir-/-sar, space, spaceborne, synthetic, topography, volcanic, volcano, volcanoes, volcanology
