Few people have seen as many volcanoes as the astronauts that inhabit the International Space Station. Not only does their imaging of the Earth's surface capture volcanism action, but it can provide remote sensing information on volcanoes that geologists cannot visit with any regularity. In honor of the thousands of volcano images that have been taken from the ISS, I present a gallery of some of the best shots I found, including some volcanoes that most people don't even know exist! Above: Adwa and Ayelu, Ethiopia To start our tour of volcanoes seen from the International Space Station, we can start with one of the most recent shots. Commander Hatfield captured this image of two Ethiopian volcanoes in the morning light -- Adwa on the left with the large summit caldera and Ayelu, an older stratovolcano, on the right. One of the advantages of space-borne imaging is that we can monitor volcanoes that in remote locations, like the East African Rift valley of Ethiopia. As the eruption of Nabro in 2011 shows, sometimes these distant volcanoes can produce eruptions with far-reaching significance. Image: Commander Chris Hadfield, CSA / Taken February 8, 2013.

Wau-en-namus, Libya Libya is not the first place most people think of when they think of volcanoes. However, there are some volcanoes in the north African country, such as Wau-en-namus. Trying to determine how old they are can be tricky. The arid environment of the Sahara can make old volcanic deposits look like they formed yesterday. The best estimate for the age of these basaltic tephra cones (whose name translates to "Oasis of Mosquitoes") within the larger caldera is Holocene -- sometime in the last 10,000 years. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken May 16, 2007.

Santorini, Greece Santorini is defintely a more famous volcano that Wau-en-namus, as the caldera-forming eruption ~3600 years ago could be the source of the Atlantis legend. The center of the caldera is now being filled by Nea Kameni, the small island with the tendrils of lava flows heading off into the sea. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken August 15, 2009.

Ksudach, Russia Now, if the Santorini occurred in a continental arc rather than an island, this is how it might look. The Ksudach caldera, as the image suggests, has had a complex history of caldera formation and post-caldera eruptions that changed the appearance of the volcano. The most recent eruption was in 1907 from the crater with the lake covered by crescent-shaped broken ice -- and it was a doozy, ranking as a VEI 5 (erupting at 2.8 cubic kilometers of tephra). Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken June 17, 2009.

Maipo, Chile/Argentina One of the many volcanoes that mark the border between Chile and its neighbor, Argentina, Maipo is a stratovolcano rising from a previous caldera volcano. This image shows the younger, dark that mark the modern edifice that partially fills the Diamante caldera. A 19th-century eruption of Maipo blocked drainages within the caldera to form Lago Diamante, seen just below Maipo itself in the image. Image: Commander Chris Hadfield / Taken February 5, 2013.

San Pedro and San Pablo, Chile The second of the three Chilean volcanoes in this gallery, this image captures both San Pedro and San Pablo in north-central Chile. These volcanoes are quite near my dissertation field area and mark the gateway to the volcanoes of the high Andes. San Pedro (to the right) last erupted in the 1960s, while San Pablo (to the left) is an older volcano that has been dissected by weathering -- although in the arid climate of the norther Chilean Andes, this could mean it hasn't been active for thousands of years (or more). Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken November 2, 2002.

Osorno, Chile The final Chilean volcano is the snow-capped Osorno, in southern Chile. It clearly has the classical conical profile of a stratovolcano. The last known eruption of Osorno was a VEI 2 eruption in 1869. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken January 28, 2011.

Bazman, Iran Another one of those volcanoes in countries most people don't associate with volcanism, not much is known about Bazman in Iran. One of the most prominent features in the thick lava flow on the western flank (left side) of the volcano, with the flow levees and steep flow front. Now, at first glance, I would have guessed a flow like this would be a silicic lava -- andesite, dacite or rhyolite -- as they are more viscous than basalt. However, that flow is apparently an olivine basalt flow (according to the Global Volcanism Program)! There have been no known historical eruption at Bazman. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken December 7, 2002.

Okmok, Alaska This image might make you a little queasy -- the angle view of Okmok definitely gives you a feel for taking shots like this from space. Okmok is another caldera that has since been partially filled by later volcanism, including the small basaltic cinder cone (Mt. Tulik) seen in the image. The caldera has changed since this picture was taken in 2001 as the caldera produced a VEI 4 eruption during July and August 2008. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken May 18, 2001.

Rinjani, Indonesia I suppose I am a sucker for caldera volcanoes, but they provide some of the more dramatic landscapes, especially when seen from space. Rinjani is a complex volcano, with the Segara Anak caldera and the Barujari cinder cone within the caldera on the edge of the lake. Barujari is the source of all known historical eruptions from Rinjani, as recently as 2010. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken September 21, 2002.

Usu, Japan Usu is only part of this image, which is dominated by the Toya caldera. Usu sits on the southern edge of the caldera (the image "upside-down" in the sense that south is up) while Nakajima Island in the middle of the caldera is composed of multiple andesitic domes. The 1663 eruption of Usu was a VEI 5 event that is the largest historical eruption on Hokkaido. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken March 9, 2001.

Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, New Zealand In this shot, we get a trio of Kiwi volcanoes -- from left to right, Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. The most recent activity in this cluster at the south end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone is just off this shot, on the northern side of Tongariro (north is to the right in this image). However, the other volcanoes are no slouches -- Ruapehu is under almost constant unrest with the last erupting coming in 2007 while Ngaurahoe, actually the westernmost cone of Tongariro, last erupted in 1977. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken October 23, 2010.

Soufriere Hills, Montserrat It must be exciting to be able to catch a volcano in the act of eruption from that far above -- one of the few places that humans lives that can't be adversely effected by volcanic activity. In this image, Soufriere Hills is producing a healthy ash plume and pyroclastic flow deposits are clearly seen forming deltas on multiple sides of the island volcano. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken October 11, 2009.

South Sister, Rock Mesa and the Devil's Hills, Oregon Last week we got a ground-level look at the rhyodacite flows on the flanks of South Sister, but here we can see them all at once from space. The snow-covered Devil's Hills and the larger, broad Rock Mesa (to the left) sit on the southern and southeastern side of South Sister. These sets of domes are geologically young, erupting in the last 3,000 years. They must have been impressive features as some of the Devil's Hills at the bottom of the image have abundant petroglyphs painted on them as well. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken December 14, 2009.

Teide, Tenerife Here we have a volcano that defines an entire island -- Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Like Kilauea on Hawai'i, Teide is a hotspot-related volcano. However, unlike Kilauea, Teide has much more of a history of explosive eruptions, with a large summit caldera. The clouds in this image are clearly related to elevation, as they follow the same topographic line around the entire island, with the main edifice of Teide soaring over the thin clouds. Image: Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center / Taken June 5, 2009.