A frequently active volcano is producing an unusually sustained eruption
NASA Earth Observatory has published a new thermal image showing lava from Réunion Island’s Piton de la Fournaise flowing east toward the sea, offering a satellite-based view of an eruption that has lasted longer and produced more lava than recent events at the volcano.
The eruption began on February 13, 2026, inside the Enclos Fouqué caldera, when four fissures opened and fed sustained lava fountains reaching roughly 10 to 50 meters in height. Through February and March, basaltic lava advanced downslope through forested and grassy terrain on the volcano’s eastern flank. By March 28, Landsat 9 thermal data captured the heat signature of those flows as they continued toward the ocean.
What the thermal image reveals
The NASA image is built from observations by the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 aboard Landsat 9. In the visualization, warmer areas appear in yellow and cooler surfaces in blue, with the thermal data overlaid on a digital elevation model of the island. That approach makes the structure of the eruption easier to interpret from orbit.
According to volcanologist Adele Campus, the brightest zones correspond to the eruptive vent, the active lava channel, and the advancing flow front. The imagery also reveals localized hotspots where lava re-emerges through breakouts after traveling through subsurface tubes. That detail matters because it shows how a lava field can remain dynamic even when only parts of the flow are visibly exposed at the surface.
Piton de la Fournaise is one of the world’s better-known active shield volcanoes, and its setting helps explain why it remains such a closely watched system. Réunion Island lies about 700 kilometers east of Madagascar and formed above a long-lived mantle hotspot on the floor of the Indian Ocean. The island itself first rose above sea level around 2 million years ago, and the volcano has logged more than 150 documented eruptions since the 17th century.
Why this eruption stands out
Frequent activity is normal at Piton de la Fournaise. What stands out here is the scale and duration relative to recent eruptions. NASA’s summary notes that the February 2026 event has lasted longer and produced a larger volume of lava than the volcano’s more recent episodes. That makes it notable not only as a visual event, but as a signal of changing eruptive behavior.
Diego Coppola of the University of Turin, cited in the Earth Observatory article, says the current activity likely marks the onset of a new cycle of frequent eruptive activity at the volcano. That is not the same as predicting a specific next eruption, but it does suggest the present event may be part of a broader shift in how the system is expressing itself.
That possibility is supported by longer-term satellite analysis. Campus and colleagues drew on more than two decades of NASA and NOAA observations in a 2025 study to identify trends and patterns in the volcano’s activity. The new eruption therefore arrives with a rich remote-sensing backdrop, allowing scientists to place it in a much longer observational record.
Why orbital monitoring matters
Volcano monitoring is no longer limited to instruments on the ground. Thermal satellite observations provide a way to map heat, flow paths, and changes in eruption intensity over time, often across terrain that is difficult to access safely. In the case of Réunion Island, the March 28 image turns a complex eruption into a readable pattern of heat transport from vent to sea.
That matters for science, hazard tracking, and public communication. A lava flow reaching the ocean is visually dramatic, but the deeper value of the image is analytical. It shows where energy is concentrated, how lava is moving, and how a long-lived hotspot island continues to evolve in real time.
Piton de la Fournaise does not need a rare eruption to command attention. It is already one of the planet’s most active volcanoes. But when a familiar system begins producing longer and more voluminous flows than usual, each new image becomes part of a more important story: not just that the volcano is active, but that its current phase may be meaningfully different from the recent norm.
This article is based on reporting by science.nasa.gov. Read the original article.
