The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team has issued a warning to aviation after an eruption began on Mount Shiveluch on the eastern Kamchatka Peninsula at about 1.00 am local time on Wednesday 11 September 2013 (1.00 pm on Tuesday 10 September GMT). The eruption produced an ash column 3.0-3.5 km in height which had drifted 31 km to the southeast when the warning was issued at 2.56 am local time. The eruption, which was initially detected by NASA's MODIS Terra satellite, appears to be ongoing. Due to the remote location of the volcano the eruption is unlikely to cause problems for anybody on the ground.
Mount Shiveluch in 2009. Alexander Belousov/Kamchatska Research Centre.
Shiveluch is the northernmost of 30 active volcanoes on the Kamchatka peninsula, fueled by the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Okhotsk Plate, upon which the Kamchatka Peninsula is located. As the Pacific Plate sinks into the Earth it is partially melted by the heat and pressure of the planet's interior. Some of the melted material then rises through the overlying Okhotsk Plate, fueling the volcanoes of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The approximate location of Mount Shiveluch. Google Maps.
See also Eruption on Mount Klyuchevskoi, Eruption on Mount Karymsky, Eruptions on Mount Shiveluch, New eruption on Mount Shiveluch and Eruption on Mount Shiveluch.
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