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Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — 12 October-18 October 2011


Sheveluch

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 12 October-18 October 2011
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2011. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 12 October-18 October 2011. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (12 October-18 October 2011)

Sheveluch

Russia

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

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


KVERT reported that seismic activity at Shiveluch was moderate during 7-14 October. Ground-based observers noted hot avalanches from the lava dome and that plumes from those avalanches rose to an altitude of 5 km (16,400 ft) a.s.l. An ash explosion on 8 October produced an ash plume that rose to an altitude of 7 km (23,000 ft) a.s.l. Satellite imagery showed a daily thermal anomaly over the lava dome and ash plumes that drifted 160 km E on 6 and 8 October. The Aviation Color Code remained at Orange.

Based on information from KEMSD, the Tokyo VAAC reported that during 15-18 October eruptions produced plumes that rose to altitudes of 6.4-10.4 km (21,000-34,000 ft) a.s.l. An eruption on 16 October noted by KVERT produced a plume that rose to an altitude of 3 km (10,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted SE.

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.

Sources: Tokyo Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC), Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT)