Archivo: Mount Tambora Volcano, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia

Description: This detailed astronaut photograph depicts the summit caldera of the volcano. The huge caldera—6 kilometres in diameter and 1,100 meters deep—formed when Tambora’s estimated 4,000-meter-high peak was removed, and the magma chamber below emptied during the 1815 eruption. Today the crater floor is occupied by an ephemeral freshwater lake, recent sedimentary deposits, and minor lava flows and domes emplaced during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Layered tephra deposits are visible along the north-western crater rim. Active fumaroles, or steam vents, still exist in the caldera.
Title: Mount Tambora Volcano, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia
Credit: Image and and English description: Mount Tambora Volcano, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, NASA Earth Observatory. 2nd version: Transferred from de.wikipedia to Commons.; originally from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/39000/39412/ISS020-E-06563_lrg.jpg
Author: This image was taken by the NASA Expedition 20 crew.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No