Is it a volcano in this image ?
The magnified version.
I was browsing through earth images here when I spotted this orange thing. Is it some oceanic volcano?
It may be an absurd question but is it a discovery?
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2$\begingroup$ There are no active or inactive volcanos there. It's sunglint. Related, on the astronomy.SE site: Does Sun have a reflection on Earth?. $\endgroup$– David HammenCommented Jan 11, 2018 at 12:01
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3$\begingroup$ if this had been a volcano it had been the size of the continental usa and it had probably been mentioned on the news,so what you see is only reflected sunlight.the yellowstone super volcano will be about a thousand times smaller than what you see on this picture $\endgroup$– trond hansenCommented Jan 11, 2018 at 12:02
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1 Answer
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From a list & map of known seamounts and submarine volcanoes it is unlikely the orange region in your picture is a submarine volcano.
The average depth of the Pacific Ocean is 4280 m. At such a depth, a submarine volcanic eruption would not produce such a large area of illumination.
It is more likely that the orange region in your picture is sunglint, which is,
a phenomenon that occurs when sunlight reflects off the surface of the ocean at the same angle that a satellite or other sensor is viewing the surface. In the affected area of the image, smooth ocean water becomes a silvery mirror, while rougher surface waters appear dark.
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1$\begingroup$ This page has an animated GIF of the moon's shadow crossing Earth where the sunglint is visible (and explained in the text). $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 11, 2018 at 19:00