The world has been following the volcanic eruptions in Iceland and the subsequent earthquakes and ash clouds that are likely to follow. These are both big concerns with the latter potentially having a significant impact to airline travel through large parts of the northern hemisphere.

On September 1st, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) spacecraft observed from orbit the eruption of the Bardarbunga volcano at Holuhraun, Iceland. This image captures the kilometer long fissure from which lava is erupting both a channeled and more expansive lava flows.

The mobile phone revolution and the projected increase in hybrid-electric and electric cars/transportation has brought the chemical element lithium to the masses. This metal is a key component in high-powered consumer and industrial battery technology. NASA’s Terra Earth observation satellite took this picture of Rockwood Lithium’s mining operations located in the Clayton Valley of Nevada. This is one of the very few lithium mining operations in the United States.

NASA’s Terra satellite used its Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) to capture this thermal infrared view of wildfires burning in Dominican Republic’s Valle Nuevo National Park.  The predominant area of this part of the national forest/park still has healthy vegetation which is shown in red. Active fires and hot spots are shown in yellow while the burned areas are dark gray.

Mount Baektu is quite the breath taking formation located on the China – North Korea border, with a 2,744 meter summit capped by a lake (Heaven Lake) which is formed within a crater. This image was taken by NASA’s Terra satellite using the ASTER instrument, which has been using 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, to map the Earth’s surface and document changes since its 1999 launch.  Another interesting fact about Baektu Mountain is that it is an active volcano which hasn’t erupted since 1903.

NASA’s Aqua scientific research satellite took this picture of first named storm of the 2014 North American hurricane season. This May 25, 2014 picture taken near the west coast of Mexico of Hurricane Amanda as it was building itself up as a category 4/5 hurricane with winds as high as 155 mph. Hurricane Amanda eventually weakened to a tropical depression into the eastern Pacific ocean.