Kamchatka’s Shiveluch Volcano spews three plumes of ash

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, April 16. /TASS/. Shiveluch Volcano on Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula has spewed three plumes of ash to a height of 4.5 kilometres above sea level, a spokesman for the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Geophysical Service told TASS on Thursday. "Volcano Shiveluch is showing increased activity today. The latest emmission of ash was registered at 14:50 local time /05:50 a.m. Moscow Time/ and this one is unlikely to be the last," the spokesman said. He said that more eruptions of ash were possible during the day. The ash plume, in his words, was drifting southeastwards. "It is a rather big plume with much of ash," the expert noted. Shivelich has been demonstrating increased activity since the weekend. It has spewed ash to different altitudes ten times. Thus, it emitted ash to a height of seven kilometres above sea level on April 15. 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