Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — 23 November-29 November 2011
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 23 November-29 November 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, 23 November-29 November 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 moderate seismic activity was detected at Shiveluch during 18-25 November, and satellite imagery showed a daily thermal anomaly over the lava dome. Ground-based observers noted that a viscous lava flow continued to effuse in the crater formed during a 2010 eruption. An ash plume detected in satellite imagery drifted 21 km W on 18 November. Strong fumarolic activity at the lava dome was observed on 18, 21, and 24 November; clouds prevented observations on the other days of the week. The Aviation Color Code 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.