The most northerly volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula is blowing its top again.
On 9 May, the 3283-metre tall Shiveluch volcano erupted, leaving a 2-millimetre-deep swathe of orange-brown dust in the snow-covered peninsula. Mud flows triggered by the eruption destroyed a road and a dam near the Bekesh river. Airliners had to divert around a dust plume that reached an altitude of more than 33,000 feet. Two days later, a smaller but longer-lasting eruption spread an ash trail up to 450 kilometres to the east-southeast.
Shiveluch has been the most active of the many volcanoes on Kamchatka for several years; it last sent a plume this high in 2001. And there may be more to come. On 14 May, the Kamchatkan volcanic eruption response team reported that a lava dome was growing in the active crater at Shiveluch. “At any time and with little warning, explosions could produce pyroclastic flows and ash plumes,” the team warns.
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