Shiveluch volcano (Kamchatka penninsula, Russia)

[notsoencrypted]

The Shiveluch volcano — on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula — erupted just after midnight, reaching a crescendo about six hours later, and spewing out an ash cloud over an area of 108,000 square kilometres, according to the Kamchatka Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Geophysical Survey.

Lava flows tumbled from the volcano, melting snow and prompting a warning of mud flows along a nearby highway while villages were carpeted in drifts of grey ash as deep as 8.5 centimetres, the deepest in 60 years.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-11/russia-volcano-eruption-aviation-warnings/102210562

Shiveluch, one of Kamchatka’s largest and most active volcanoes, has had about 60 substantial eruptions in 10,000 years, with the previous large one in 2007.

It has two main parts, the smaller of which – Young Shiveluch – scientists have reported as being extremely active in recent months, with a peak of 2,800 metres (9,186ft) that protrudes out of the 3,283-metre-high Old Shiveluch.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ion-smothers-villages-triggers-aviation-alert

 

[bjdeming]

Incredible video of the recent eruption at Shiveluch, which Simon Carn tweeted might be the biggest one it has had in the satellite era (he was looking at the SO2 emission).



Be sure to check the second post in that thread.

Fortunately, not many people live anywhere near this very Mount-St-Helens-like Kamchatkan volcano, but it does affect international flights (reduced now because of the geopolitical situation).

Here it is again:



And that person just stood there and continued filming the pyroclastic flows (not that they had much choice):



The dog couldn't care less.

And fortunately for nearby people in Oregon and Washington, MSH is nowhere near as violently active as Shiveluch (a/k/a Sheveluch).

 

[bjdeming]

Here's the satellite plume view:

 

[bjdeming]

The Smithsonian GVP report is up; it's one of those rare totally objective texts that also would make good thriller reading.

The ash is still causing flight cancellations in Alaska today (probably in Canada, too).

 

[bjdeming]

Also, this:

 

[bjdeming]

It's a good thing Shiveluch is waaaay out in the world's boonies, not near a major city -- see the big smoking thing in the central part of the volcano (image by Elena Klimenko, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 )?

That's the lava dome.

It blew up. Almost. The. Whole. Thing.



Now Shiveluch is back to Orange and carrying on in its usual vulcanian way (intermittent explosions), and probably working on a new dome.

 

[bjdeming]

Here's a more recent image of the dome, but still, it was an impressive blast.

 

[bjdeming]

Looked up more info -- these are Russian sites but, I think, reliable (volcanoes don't care about national boundaries or disputes, and the people monitoring dangerous volcanoes know it):

• Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, autotranslated (I hope). Daily updates, webcams, info.
• KVERT. Notices of activity, etc.

Of note, volcanologist Boris Behncke tweets that not quite all of the old dome went and that there probably is a new dome growing in there.