The astronaut on board the International Space Station took an incredible picture of an ancient stream of lava that reached through the desert in New Mexico, and on top of that, a frozen river of volcanic rock looks like a dark scar cut out in the surrounding desert, writes Live Science.
The area of the basalt lava, known as Carrizozo Malpaís, is about 337 km2, and its length is about 80 km. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, it is located near Carrizo, a city in the Chihuahua desert in New Mexico, one of the largest lava flows on Earth in 10,000 years.
The eruption that gave rise to Carrizo Malpais began about 5,000 years ago and lasted from 20 to 30 years, during which time the magma slowly came out of a subsurface volcano, which has since become inactive. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, isolated lava tubes under the surface spread the molten rock into an unusually large area.
The new image is a puzzle of four photographs taken on 30 June by an unknown astronaut from the 67th expedition on board the ISS. A "stitched" photograph, which is one of the most detailed aerial photographs of the lava stream ever taken, was published on the NASA Earth Observatory website.
A full-size high-resolution picture can be viewed here.
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