# @planetary_pan on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CGtFGWZHNaE
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33111067-planetary-pan-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/51386e41a0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2020-10-23T23:24:15.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Beth Johnson (@planetarypan) — https://gondola.cc/planetarypan

## Caption

I have a Chrome extension on my computer called "Earth View from Google Earth". For those who don't know about this extension, it shows you an interesting Google Earth picture whenever you open a new tab in Chrome. As someone who loves geology, every so often, I get very distracted by these images.⠀
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Case in point: Tonight, the image was of a place in Syria that looked like a volcano. I had to do a teensy bit of research, and the image here is not the volcano I saw... but rather, the large volcano in the region. There are cinder cones scattered nearby in the Es Safa Volcanic Field. If you look on Google Earth, you can scan around and find what appears to be pāhoehoe type lava flows around this volcano and the field. Frankly, it's pretty sizable. And awesome.⠀
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Earth is fascinating to me.⠀
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From NASA's Earth Observatory: Es Safa is a striking basaltic volcanic field located to the southeast of Damascus, Syria. It lies within the larger Harrat Ash Shamah—the largest volcanic field on the Arabian tectonic plate. Harrat Ash Shamah parallels the Red Sea and extends from northeastern Israel, through southern Syria and Jordan, and into Saudi Arabia, covering an area of over 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles).⠀
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Es Safa contains numerous vents that have been active during the Holocene Epoch (beginning approximately 12,000 years ago). The most recent recorded activity was a boiling lava lake observed in the area around 1850. The dark lava flow field (center) likely represents the latest activity of the volcanic field, and is emplaced over older, lighter colored flows. The older flow surfaces also have light tan sediment accumulating in shallow depressions, in contrast to the relatively pristine surfaces of the darker, younger flows.⠀
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Image credit: ISS — Digital Camera, September 4, 2010⠀
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#earth #googleearth #iss #spacestation #essafavolcanicfield #volcanicfield #volcano #syria #harratashshamah #arabiantectonicplate #lava #lavaflows #pāhoehoe #geology #photography

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## Tags

harratashshamah, spacestation, earth, lavaflows, volcano, syria, photography, essafavolcanicfield, lava, volcanicfield, arabiantectonicplate, pāhoehoe, googleearth, iss, geology

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