Following a period of explosive eruptions and lava-dome growth beginning in October 1955, a major explosive eruption took place on 30 March 1956 at Bezymianny volcano in Kamchatka. The Plinian eruption, seen here from 100 km W, produced a 40-km-high ash column, pyroclastic flow to a distance of 18 km, lateral blast, and a debris avalanche when the summit of the volcano collapsed.

Photo by I. V. Yerov, 1956 (courtesy of G.S. Gorshkov, published in Green and Short, 1971).

This image is made available under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license terms.

Galleries: Ash Plumes and Ashfall

Keywords: explosive eruption | Plinian | ash plume | umbrella cloud | ash | eruption

Bezymianny