Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — 12 February-18 February 2014
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 12 February-18 February 2014
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2014. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 12 February-18 February 2014. 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 during 7-14 February lava-dome extrusion at Shiveluch was accompanied by ash explosions, incandescence, and fumarolic activity. A thermal anomaly was detected in satellite images on 9 and 12 February; cloud cover prevented views on the other days. Pyroclastic flow deposits on the SW flank from the 6 February were observed to be 12 km long. On 17 February at 1108 video data showed an ash plume rising to an altitude of 4 km (13,100 ft) a.s.l. 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.