Aug 31, 2020
Space station capture of the 2019 Eruption of the RaikokeĀ volcano on the sparsely populated Russian Kuril Islands, North of Japan. Estimated height of the plume is 13-17 km.
Downwind dispersal of the plume distributes fine ash over a wide area.
So called plinian eruption. Umbrella region clearly developed where density of plume is the same as air density and plume stops rising.
Such a cloud can contain several thousand tons of glowing ash, which, as long as it is hot enough, keeps itself at a height through thermals until it collapses and forms a so-called pyroclastic flow of hot ash which buries everything under itself, as in Pompeii 79 A.D.
