[NASA] A Bright Spot at Mount Michael

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3. A Bright Spot at Mount Michael

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Mount Michael on Saunders Island, seen in this image acquired with the 

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 (Operational Land Imager) on

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on August 24, 2026, hosts a frequently active lava lake in its summit crater.

NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

Winter near the Antarctic Circle brings months of frozen darkness, when sea ice chokes ocean waters and many of its denizens hunker down to ride out the harsh conditions. But as winter began to release its icy grip, an uncommonly clear satellite image revealed that part of this remote realm was still very much awake, at least volcanically speaking.

Mount Michael, the stratovolcano at the center of Saunders Island, rises above the ice-filled South Atlantic Ocean in this image, acquired with the 

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 (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS 

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satellite on August 24, 2026. The natural-color image is overlaid with an infrared signal (

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7-6-5), shown in red, revealing heat from the persistent lava lake in its summit crater. A puff of a volcanic plume hovering over the peak, along with darkened snow on its northern slopes, also suggests ongoing activity.

Saunders Island is one of the 

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, a string of small volcanic peaks about 350 kilometers (220 miles) long that formed from the South American plate

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beneath the tiny South Sandwich plate. Regular eruptions, including at Mount Michael, have occurred on these islands in recent centuries.

Because of the volcanoes’ remoteness, scientists rely on satellite data to understand their activity. An

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of thermal anomalies in Landsat, Sentinel, and

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(Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) observations spanning 30 years led researchers to conclude that Mount Michael hosts a persistent

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in its summit crater. Only a handful of other volcanoes on Earth, including

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,

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, and

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, are known to have similar, frequently active features.

Thermal observations from the 

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 (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and 

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 (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instruments have also enabled long-term monitoring of Mount Michael. Data provided through

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, a near-real-time volcanic hot spot detection system, indicate that low-intensity activity has been ongoing at the volcano for the past several years. Other observations from NASA’s

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satellite show that emissions of sulfur dioxide and other gases 

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 at Mount Michael.

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Wave clouds form downwind of Saunders Island in this image acquired with the 

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 (Operational Land Imager) on

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on September 1, 2026.

NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

The cloud-free window over Mount Michael would close in short order. One week later, when

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passed over the island, a more active atmosphere had returned. But the weather patterns interacted with the island to put on a spectacle of their own. The 843-meter-high (2,766-foot-high) peak jutting from the ocean disturbed passing winds to produce a series of 

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resembling the

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, a familiar phenomenon in this region.

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captured by NASA’s

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satellite indicates that a

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caused by degassing sulfur dioxide was likely present as well.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the 

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. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

Downloads

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August 24, 2026

JPEG (4.27 MB)

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September 1, 2026

JPEG (1.14 MB)

References & Resources

• Global Volcanism Program (2026)
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  . Accessed September 4, 2026.
• Gray, D.M., et al. (2019)
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  . Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 379, 60-71.
• MIROVA (2026)
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  . Accessed September 4, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2020, June 23)
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  . Accessed September 4, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2020, February 28)
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  . Accessed September 4, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2019, July 19)
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  . Accessed September 4, 2026.
• NASA Earthdata (2020, July 28)
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  . Accessed September 4, 2026.

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