During 11-12 January, explosions at Shiveluch produced ash plumes to 4 km a.s.l. that drifted W. The explosions were accompanied by pyroclastic flows with run-out distances around 1 km. On 16 January at 1125 an eruption produced an ash plume that rose ~5.5 km a.s.l. and drifted W. The same day KVERT raised the Concern Color Code to Orange from Yellow. During 9-16 January, seismicity was above background levels at Shiveluch, with the recording of ~70 shallow earthquakes greater than M 1.75 and a large number of weaker earthquakes beneath the active lava dome. In addition, intermittent spasmodic tremor was recorded during 11-16 January.

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: Itar-Tass News, Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT)