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Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — May 1998


Sheveluch

Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 23, no. 5 (May 1998)
Managing Editor: Richard Wunderman.

Sheveluch (Russia) Satellite imagery detects large ash plume

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1998. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Wunderman, R., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 23:5. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN199805-300270



Sheveluch

Russia

56.653°N, 161.36°E; summit elev. 3283 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


A report of an ash plume 4 km above sea level extending 35 km from Shiveluch was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) via the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and Anchorage VAAC early on 30 May. AVO analysis of various satellite images determined that the eruption began about 1739 on 29 May. A JMA satellite image taken at 1930 that day showed a small, narrow, well-defined ash plume detached from the vent, extending about 100 km downwind to the SSE. Satellite imagery analysis by AVO on the morning of 30 May showed the Shiveluch area clear with no volcanic activity. There was no ash detected in the area SSE of the volcano where the cloud diffused. Three pilot's reports from flights 9 km above sea level over the Shiveluch area on 30 May confirmed there was no ash cloud remaining in the region.

The ash plume did not act like an energetic, high-level eruption plume but rather a low-level short-lived eruption burst from the volcano. These types of eruption bursts are not uncommon from Shiveluch and are connected with the growing extrusive dome inside the crater. The level-of-concern color code was changed to yellow, but reverted to green on 1 June.

Seismicity was at background levels through most of June. During 11-15 June the system registered increased seismicity and volcanic tremor. On June 15 at 0247 it registered about 2 minutes of explosive activity. It was dark and the volcano was obscured by clouds when this explosive activity took place leaving researchers without visual information; they estimated plume height at 5 km.

On 31 May a gas-and-steam plume without ash rose 2 km above the volcano. During 9-11 June a fumarolic plume rose 100-500 m above the volcano, and during 17-19 a plume rose to 200-800 m. Clouds limited visibility throughout much of May.

Geological Summary. The high, isolated massif of Sheveluch volcano (also spelled Shiveluch) rises above the lowlands NNE of the Kliuchevskaya volcano group. The 1,300 km3 andesitic volcano is one of Kamchatka's largest and most active volcanic structures, with at least 60 large eruptions during the Holocene. The summit of roughly 65,000-year-old Stary Shiveluch is truncated by a broad 9-km-wide late-Pleistocene caldera breached to the south. Many lava domes occur on its outer flanks. The Molodoy Shiveluch lava dome complex was constructed during the Holocene within the large open caldera; Holocene lava dome extrusion also took place on the flanks of Stary Shiveluch. Widespread tephra layers from these eruptions have provided valuable time markers for dating volcanic events in Kamchatka. Frequent collapses of dome complexes, most recently in 1964, have produced debris avalanches whose deposits cover much of the floor of the breached caldera.

Information Contacts: Olga Chubarova and Vladimir Kirianov, Kamchatka Volcanic Eruptions Response Team (KVERT), Institute of Volcanic Geology and Geochemistry, Piip Ave. 9, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 683006, Russia; Tom Miller, Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), a cooperative program of a) U.S. Geological Survey, 4200 University Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508-4667, USA (URL: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/), b) Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, PO Box 757320, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7320, USA, and c) Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, 794 University Ave., Suite 200, Fairbanks, AK 99709, USA.