Space Station captures dramatic image of erupting Alaska volcano

GREENBELT, Md., May 23 (UPI) -- NASA released a dramatic and revealing image of an erupting Alaskan volcano Thursday taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

The photograph is of the Pavlof Volcano, located in the Aleutian Arc about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage, the space agency said.

The oblique perspective of the photo taken from the ISS when it was about 475 miles south-southeast of the volcano reveals the three dimensional structure of the ash plume, often obscured by the top-down view of most remote sensing satellites, NASA said.

Pavlof began erupting May 13, jetting lava into the air and spewing an ash cloud 20,000 feet high.

The volcanic plume has been drifting southeastward over the North Pacific Ocean.