The Kamtchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team has issued a warning to aviation following an eruption on Mount Klyuchevskoi, a 4750, stratovolcano
(cone-shaped volcano made up
of successive layers of ash and lava), on the central Kamchatka
Peninsula, at about 0.40 am local time on Wednesday 15 April 2020. The eruption produced an ash column that rose to a height of about 6000 meters above sealevel, and drifted about 65 km to the northeast. Smaller explosive eruptions continue on the volcano, which has been more-or-less constantly active since April 2019.
An ash cloud above Mount Klyuchevskoi on 13 April 2020. Volcano Discovery/Kamtchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team.
Mount Klyuchevskoi is part of the Klyuchevskoi Volcano Group in
the Ust-Kamchatka (East Kamchatka) District, along with mounts
Bezymianny and Kamen. The Kamchatka Peninsula lies on the eastern
edge of the Okhotsk Plate, close to its margin with the Pacific and
North American Plates. The Pacific Plate is being subducted along the
margin, and as it does so it passes under the southern part of the
Kamchatka Peninsula, and as it does so is partially melted by the
friction and the heat of the Earth's interior. Some of the melted
material then rises through the overlying Okhotsk Plate as magma and
fuelling the volcanoes of southern Kamchatka.
Simple
diagram showing the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Okhotsk
Plate along the Kuril Kamchatka Trench. The Kamchatka Peninsula is at
the top of the diagram. Auburn University.
See also...
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