An incredible image captured by a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite shows lava flowing for miles out of the erupting Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma—one of Spain’s Canary Islands, located off the coast of northwest Africa.
The image was snapped on September 30 by the ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which is comprised of two satellites that pass over both of Earth’s poles every orbit, collecting data for emergency management, security and land monitoring purposes, as well as for climate change research.
The true-color Sentinel-2 image shows the flow of lava from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which extends all the way into the Atlantic Ocean—a distance of around 3.7 miles, according to the ESA. The lava has been highlighted with the help of an infrared-detecting instrument on the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites.
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