Tolbachik Eruption: Identifying Lava Flow Features

A beautiful view of lava flows from the November-December 2012 Tolbachik eruption (seen on December 6). See the text for the description of all the features. Image: V. Yaschuk/KVERT We know return to your regularly scheduled program... On Friday, KVERT posted a great image of some of the lava flows from the Tolbachik eruption -- as we saw in ASTER images recently, the eruption has produced a great network of lava flows, forming intersecting channels of lava as they flow over 10 km from the vent. This new image shows a bevy of lava flow images from this eruption, including features we've seen a many other basaltic to basaltic andesite eruption, like Kilauea and Eyjafjallajökull. What I did was annotate the new Tolbachik image and added some images from other eruption so you can begin to train your eye to spot these volcanic features. Lava flow channels: Like water, low ...