Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — 7 September-13 September 2011
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 7 September-13 September 2011
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2011. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 7 September-13 September 2011. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.
Sheveluch
Russia
56.653°N, 161.36°E; summit elev. 3283 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
KVERT reported that seismic activity at Shiveluch was moderate during 2-9 September, and indicated that possible ash plumes rose to an altitude of 4.3 km (14,100 ft) a.s.l. during 2-3 September. Ground-based observers noted fumarolic activity during the week, and an ash plume that rose to an altitude of 4 km (19,700 ft) a.s.l. on 3 September. Also on 3 September an ash cloud 19 by 11 km was observed in satellite imagery drifting 20 km E. A thermal anomaly on the volcano was also observed in satellite imagery on 5 and 7 September. The Aviation Color Code remained at Orange.
Based on information from KEMSD, the Tokyo VAAC reported that on 10 September an eruption produced a plume that rose to an altitude of 6.7 km (22,000 ft) a.s.l.
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: Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), Tokyo Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC)