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Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — 15 December-21 December 2010


Sheveluch

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 15 December-21 December 2010
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2010. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 15 December-21 December 2010. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (15 December-21 December 2010)

Sheveluch

Russia

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

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


KVERT reported that moderate seismic activity from Shiveluch was detected during 10-17 December and a bright thermal anomaly was observed in satellite imagery. Seismic data analysis suggested that ash plumes rose to an altitude of 5.2 km (17,100 ft) a.s.l. Strong gas-and-steam activity was observed during 9 and 11-14 December. On 14 December, an ash explosion produced an ash plume that rose to an altitude of 4.5 km (14,800 ft) a.s.l. and a 2-km-long pyroclastic flow. Satellite imagery showed an ash plume that drifted 230 km NE. The Aviation Color Code level remained at Orange.

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.

Source: Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT)