Volcanic Sunsets Over Eastern Kansas

July 29, 2009

Dougsunset1


Dougsunset3

Photographer: Doug Zubenel 
Summary Author: Doug Zubenel

Having seen the amazing image of the Sarychev Peak volcano blasting a pillar of ash into the stratosphere, as taken from the International Space Station on June 12, 2009, I wondered how long it might be before we observed volcanic sunsets here in eastern Kansas. With any luck, they would be like the ones that painted the twilight skies last August and September -- from the Kasatochi volcano in Alaska.  Reports and images began appearing on the internet in late June, and on the afternoon of the 28th, I could see an ash cloud low on our northern horizon.  The very next evening, enough of the ash had moved south to help create this wonderful display of crepuscular rays cast upon the underside of cirrus clouds, just above the western horizon. Two days later, on July 1, I spotted a cloud of undulating ash near the Sun and made the bottom image just before sunset.