In September and October of 1994, the space shuttle Endeavour was orbiting 115 nautical miles above Earth while the Kliuchevskoi Volcano was spewing ash and dust into the atmosphere at an alarming rate. Not in any position to do anything about it, the astronauts aboard the space shuttle did the only thing they could do... they took pictures.
Drones (we're talking about the quadcopter kind, not the military kind) are pretty incredible devices... especially when you toss a camera on them. They tend to be a bit expensive though, starting at around $500 for a lower-level one and going all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Because of this, the drone footage we usually see is done in a semi-safe environment, where the risk of losing it is minimal. YouTuber Shaun O'Callaghan, however, is a bit more brave -- if that's the right word here -- than the rest of us.
These images by Chilean photographer Francisco Negroni of the Cordón Caulle volcano erupting are so jaw-dropping and mind-blowing that we're finding it hard to come up with appropriate adjectives. Billowing clouds of ash are joined by spiderwebs of Volcanic lightning to create a light show that truly drives home Mother Nature's terrifying splendor.
Located the Mexican state of Puebla, Popocatépetl is the second highest peak in Mexico and an active volcano -- a really active volcano. It's one of the most lively ones in the country of Mexico, with over 15 major eruptions on record since 1519 and plenty of smaller explosions through the years.
Yesterday, Popocatépetl experienced another powerful explosion as the top "popped off" to relieve the pressure within. A webcam pointed at the peak was able to capture the whole thing, and the video above shows what the explosion and resulting shockwave look like in time-lapse.
The Sakurajima volcano in southern Japan has been quite active so far in 2013, and photographer Martin Rietze recently traveled to the site to document the eruptions through photographs. His images capture smoke billowing out of the crater, lava exploding in trails of orange light, and lightning flashing back and forth inside the dark ash cloud.
Since we've been talking about taking pictures of outer space, it only seems right that we share an incredible picture taken from outer space. This photo, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, shows the incredible vantage point they were privy to in 2009 when they witnessed an eruption of the highly active Sarychev Volcano.
Here's a fascinating video about the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which was preceded by one of the largest landslides in recorded history. Amateur photographer Keith Ronnholm had set up camp that day at Bear Meadows, roughly 10 miles northeast of the mountain.
This amazing photograph by Ricardo Mohr shows the volcano …
When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, photographer …