Volcanic activity at Sheveluch declined during the period of May through October 2018. This decline followed a lengthy cycle of eruptive activities which began in 1999, including pyroclastic flows, explosions, and lava dome growth, as previously reported through April 2018 (BGVN 43:05). According to the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), during this time a thermal anomaly was detected in satellite imagery and two gas-and-steam events were reported in July and October 2018. The Aviation Color Code remained at Orange (the second highest level on a four-color scale).

KVERT reported that satellite data showed a plume of re-suspended ash up to 62 km to the SE of the volcano on 18 July 2018. Moderate gas and steam emissions rose from the volcano on 19-26 October 2018. Thermal anomalies were frequently reported by KVERT during May through October 2018. The MIROVA system detected intermittent low-power thermal anomalies during this time.

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: Kamchatka Volcanic Eruptions Response Team (KVERT), Far East Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, 9 Piip Blvd., Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 683006, Russia (URL: http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/); MIROVA (Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity), a collaborative project between the Universities of Turin and Florence (Italy) supported by the Centre for Volcanic Risk of the Italian Civil Protection Department (URL: http://www.mirovaweb.it/).