Report on Sheveluch (Russia) — 3 January-9 January 2018
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 3 January-9 January 2018
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2018. Report on Sheveluch (Russia) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 3 January-9 January 2018. 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 a thermal anomaly over Sheveluch was identified in satellite images during 29 December 2017-5 January 2018. On 10 January satellite images captured an ash cloud, 192x132 km in dimension, from explosions rising to altitudes of 10-11 km (32,800-36,100 ft) a.s.l. and drifting 230 km NE. KVERT raised the Aviation Color Code to Red. Later that day satellite images showed an ash cloud 350x180 km in dimension drifting 400 km E; the Aviation Color Code was lowered back to 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.