What's in the photo? The lava-stained slopes and ash cone of a highly active volcano
When was it taken? Oct. 6, 2020
The volcano is officially named Ol Doinyo Lengai and stands up to 9,718 feet (2,692 meters) above the grassy plains of the Arusha region of northern Tanzania. The local Maasai people call the towering peak the "Mountain of God," because they believe it is the residence of the supreme creator god Ngai (also known as Engai or Enkai), according to the book "Sacred Mountains of the World" (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
The sacred mountain produces a rare type of lava that consists of natrocarbonatite rock, which is rich in sodium, potassium and calcium carbonate but low in silica. As a result, it is much cooler than most other lava, dipping to temperatures below 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius). It also has an unusually low viscosity, which makes it "some of the fastest-flowing lava in the world," according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
For most of the past century, Ol Doinyo Lengai's summit consisted of a bowl-like depression that gradually filled with lava. But between 2007 and 2008, a series of major explosive eruptions birthed a 330-foot-tall (100 m) ash cone that now looms over the summit's center.
Lake Natron, near Ol Doinyo Lengai, hosts large flamingo populations. (Image credit: TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)
Ol Doinyo Lengai is located in the East African Rift System, a roughly 2,000-mile long (3,500 kilometers) area surrounding a divergent fault line where the African Plate is splitting into the Somali and Nubian plates.
The godly mountain is around 10 miles (16 km) south of Lake Natron, a red salt lake that's famed for its large flamingo populations. The geographical features are often photographed alongside one another.
See more Earth from space
A 2020 astronaut photo shows a massive, milky-green vortex in Lake Skadar, which lies on the border between Montenegro and Albania.
A 2015 satellite photo shows a series of golden tendrils surrounding Ghana's Lake Bosumtwi, which is considered sacred to the local Asante people.
A 2020 astronaut photo shows three uniquely colored lakes — Tahoe, Walker and Mono — straddling contrasting biomes on either side of the California-Nevada border.
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