On July 26, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of a volcanic plume billowing from Sabancaya volcano in southern Peru. The rising ash cast a shadow on the ground below.

Activity at Sabancaya has gradually increased over the course of July 2017, according to reports cited by the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program. The volcano has been erupting sporadically since 2014 and more consistently since the middle of 2016.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Kathryn Hansen.