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Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — July 1993


Sheveluch

Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 18, no. 7 (July 1993)
Managing Editor: Edward Venzke.

Sheveluch (Russia) Gas-and-steam plume continues

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1993. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Venzke, E., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 18:7. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN199307-300270



Sheveluch

Russia

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

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


A gas-and-steam plume was observed on the afternoon of 29 July rising to 3 km above the crater and extending >50 km S. Similar activity, with a gas-and-steam column rising 1-6 km above the rim, has persisted since the 22 April eruption. The volcano has also remained seismically active. Seismicity registered at a station 8 km from the volcano increased 23-24 and 28-29 July, then decreased after 1 August. Weather conditions prevented visual observations of the summit in early August.

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: S. Zharinov, IVGG.