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[[ NASA logo ]] National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Space Shuttle Earth View Southern Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

Southern Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia
This image shows a broad expanse of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, covered with snow. Volcanoes dominate the landscape. The winter snow and low sun accentuate the rugged volcanic mountains. The cone-shapes mountains in the foreground and large circular caldera (left center) include some of the world's most active volcanoes. These volcanoes are a result of tectonic plate motion. As the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Kamchatka Peninsula. Current volcanic activity is along a north-south zone that parallels a deep ocean trench offshore Eastern Kamchatka. 

This view looks westward over the south-central part of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Although Kamchatka is sparsely populated, the region is rich in mineral deposits related to the volcanic activity and to large forest reserves (the dark regions near the foothills of the mountains). 


Possible Starting Points for Student Investigations:
- What are these shapes?
- How are they similar to the volcanoes in the other images? How are they different?
- Why is this area covered in white?
- Why is one coast irregular and the other more linear?


Southern Kamchatka
December 5, 1992
Hasselblad Camera, 250mm lens