Explosive eruption of Kamchatka's Bezymyanny volcano ends - scientists

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. July 25 (Interfax) - The explosive eruption of the Bezymyanny volcano in eastern Kamchatka has finished, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) of the Russian Academy of Sciences Far Eastern branch's Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

"The volcano's explosive eruption is over, but volcanic activity is continuing," it said.

A column of ash 80 kilometers wide continues to move from the volcano to the southwest and the southeast. According to satellite data, the frontal parts of the ash plume have spread 130 kilometers southwestward and 926 kilometers in the southeastward.

Meanwhile, the Bezymyanny volcano alert level for aircraft has been downgraded from red to orange. The volcano remains dangerous for local air traffic.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Tuesday, citing scientists, that the Bezymyanny volcano was expected to erupt over the coming days, spewing ash up to 15 kilometers above sea level.

Early on July 25, the volcano spewed ash 12 kilometers above sea level. A powerful pyroclastic flow, a fast-moving current of hot volcanic gases, ash and matter, descended.

Kamchatka's 2,882-meter-tall Bezymyanny, one of the world's most active volcanoes, is located near Klyuchevskaya Sopka, about 40 kilometers from the Klyuchi village in the Ust-Kamchatsk district.