Kamchatka’s Shiveluch Volcano spews ash 10 km high

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, March 26. /TASS/. Shiveluch Volcano on Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula has spewed ash to a height of ten kilometres above sea level. The ash cloud is drifiting towards the settlement of Ust-Kamchatsk, a spokesman for the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Geophysical Service told TASS on Thursday. "Ash emission was visually registered at 10:08 a.m. local time /01:08 Moscow time/. The ash plume is being carried by the wind to the southeast, towards the settlement of Ust-Kamchatsk. So far, no ash fallout has been reported from this settlement," the spokesman said. The ash emission has been assigned an orange level of aviation hazard. Shiveluch is the northernmost active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is located 450 kilometers northeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The absolute height of the volcano is 3,283 meters. The highest point of its active part, called Young Shiveluch, is 2,500 meters above sea level, the diameter of the crater is 1.5 kilometers. Catastrophic eruptions took place in 1864 and 1964, when a large part of the lava dome collapsed and created a devastating debris avalanche. Young Shiveluch has been active since September 1980. Specialists have been continuously monitoring the volcano for more than 30 years. So far the volcano poses no threat to neighboring populated localities. Read more