Earth · Monday, September 7, 2026
A Landsat pass caught Mount Michael’s lava lake awake.
The File desk · Sep 7, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC
Status
Confirmed from NASA Earth Observatory’s Image of the Day for Sept. 7, 2026. Story by Lindsey Doermann. Images by Michala Garrison using U.S. Geological Survey Landsat data.
Mount Michael sits on Saunders Island, far down in the South Atlantic. A Landsat 8 pass on Aug. 24 caught heat from a persistent lava lake in the summit crater. NASA Earth Observatory made it the Image of the Day for Sept. 7. Lindsey Doermann wrote the story. Michala Garrison made the pictures from U.S. Geological Survey Landsat data. Scientists watch this place mainly from orbit.
Mount Michael sits on Saunders Island, far down in the South Atlantic. On Aug. 24 a Landsat 8 pass caught the lava lake awake.
NASA Earth Observatory made the picture its Image of the Day for Sept. 7, 2026. The volcano is the stratovolcano at the center of Saunders Island in the South Sandwich Islands. An infrared overlay, in red, marks heat from a persistent lava lake in the summit crater.
Lindsey Doermann wrote the story. Michala Garrison made the pictures, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The island is remote. Scientists watch it mainly by satellite. NASA notes that only a handful of other volcanoes on Earth, including Kīlauea, Nyamulagira, and Erta Ale, are known to host similar, frequently active lava lakes.
A week later, on Sept. 1, Landsat 9 found the clear window gone. Wave clouds streamed off the 843-meter peak. The lava lake was the story on Aug. 24. The clouds were the story after.
What is still unknown or disputed
- How long the present pulse of activity lasts is not fixed in this Image of the Day post.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
A Bright Spot at Mount Michael
NASA Earth Observatory / NASA Science · September 7, 2026
Image of the Day for September 7, 2026. Mount Michael on Saunders Island, seen in this image acquired with the OLI on Landsat 8 on August 24, 2026, hosts a frequently active lava lake in its summit crater. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann. Because of the volcanoes’ remoteness, scientists rely on satellite data to understand their activity.
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-bright-spot-at-mount-michael/