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Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado
(TWAN)
Explanation:
Why does the shadow of this volcano look like a triangle?
The Mount Teide volcano itself does not have the strictly
pyramidal shape
that its geometric shadow might suggest.
The triangle shadow phenomena
is not unique to the
Mt. Teide, though, and is
commonly
seen from the tops of other
large mountains and volcanoes.
A key reason for the strange dark shape is that the observer is looking down the
long corridor of a sunset (or sunrise) shadow that extends to the horizon.
Even if the
huge volcano were a perfect
cube
and the resulting shadow were a long rectangular box,
that box would appear to taper off at its top as its
shadow extended far into the distance, just as parallel
train tracks do.
The featured spectacular image shows
Pico Viejo crater in the foreground,
located on
Tenerife in the
Canary Islands of
Spain.
The nearly full moon is seen nearby shortly after its
total lunar eclipse.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: shadow - volcano
Publications with words: shadow - volcano
See also:
- APOD: 2024 April 23 Á Contrail Shadow X
- APOD: 2024 April 22 Á Moon and Smoke Rings from Mt Etna
- APOD: 2024 February 11 Á Rocket Plume Shadow Points to the Moon
- APOD: 2024 January 22 Á Shadows of Mountain and Moon
- APOD: 2023 May 9 Á Shadows of Earth
- Shadows at the Moons South Pole
- Stars over an Erupting Volcano