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Remarkable Images Of Volcanic Lightning, A Scientific Mystery

Martin Rietze, a German photographer who works under the title “Alien Landscapes on Planet Earth,” has traveled to dozens of them. Rietze’s photo of the Sakurajima volcano was featured as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day earlier in the week, after Rietze traveled to southern Japan to photograph it in January. The volcano was part of the Osumi Peninsula until 1914, when it blew its lid and separated to form its own little island. Today, it’s one of the most active volcanos in Asia. “It leaves a very deep impression,” Rietze tells Co.Design. “Sitting near a boiling lava lake, feeling the heat and static charge of an ongoing eruption column 1000m high, smelling all kinds of toxic gasses, watching burning sulfur, hearing eruption sounds as loud as a starting airplane nearby …”

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