Erupting Shiveluch volcano in Russia's Kamchatka spews ash 8.5 km above sea level

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. Nov 8 (Interfax) - The Shiveluch volcano erupting in eastern Kamchatka spewed more ash 8.5 kilometers above sea level on Friday morning, the Kamchatka volcanic-eruption monitoring group from the Volcanology and Seismology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Far Eastern branch said.

"The ash plume is billowing 120 kilometers east of the volcano," the group said.

The group has downgraded the aviation color code for Shiveluch from red to orange, as the threat it poses to aircraft has slightly decreased.

The strong explosive eruption of the Kamchatka Shiveluch volcano happened near the new lava dome named after the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences, next to the old Karan dome, in the evening of November 7. Residents of Klyuchi, a populated locality nearby, said they felt a blast wave. The volcano emitted several ash columns up to 11 kilometers above sea level. Minor ash fall occurred in two towns in the Ust-Kamchatsk district on Friday morning. Ash emissions are continuing but they are less intensive than before. A pyroclastic flow (a mixture of high-temperature volcanic gases, ash and rock fragments formed by a volcanic eruption) stretches for more than ten kilometers down the western slope of the volcano.

The previous strong eruption of Shiveluch happened in April 2023. Back then, Klyuchi saw the heaviest ash fall in 60 years. The ash layer was 8.5-centimeters-thick, and volcanic ash emissions reached 20 kilometers above sea level.

Shiveluch is the northernmost active volcano in Kamchatka, located 45 kilometers away from Klyuchi in the Ust-Kamchatsk district with a population of about 5,000. This is one of the largest volcanos in Kamchatka.