satellite photo of the Mount Nemrut volcano crater in Turkey, which appears in a yin-yang style pattern from space.
The crater shows differentiated lava flows and a lake that have accumulated over eruptions to split the caldera almost evenly in two distinctive halves.
When snow covers the volcano, the contrast makes the yin-yang pattern most evident. The flows formed ridges as lava cooled in eruptions after a massive eruption 250,000 years ago.
That earlier eruption carved the large 5.3 mile-wide caldera and deposited a lava flow that blocked a river to form Turkey’s largest lake to the east.
Smaller eruptions later added lava to one side of the crater, while the other half filled with water to become a crater lake reaching 577 feet deep.
Hot springs still feed a smaller lake within the caldera, showing geothermal activity continues beneath the now-dormant Mount Nemrut stratovolcano.
The photo highlights the volcano’s unique caldera landscape and formations clearly from the vantage point of the International Space Station.
Source: LiveScience
