Tuesday 27 August 2013

Eruption on Mount Klyuchevskoi.

Mount Klyuchevskoi, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, began erupting for the first time since October 2012 on the evening of Monday 26 August 2013, and continuing overnight. The volcano, which is the highest in Eurasia, produced small explosive eruptions through the night, throwing incandescent ash 200-300 m above the cone, visible from the village of Kozirevsk, according to the Skanex Research and Development Center. The volcano is in a remote location, and not an immediate threat to any human population, though a major eruption may cause disruption to aircraft and the tourist industry. There is also a danger that significant warming on the volcano may lead to ice and snow melting, with the danger of lahars (mud and debris flow caused by flash flooding mixed with volcanic material).

Mount Klyuchevskoi. Volkstat.

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 fueling the volcanoes of southern Kamchatka.

The approximate location of Mount Klyuchevskoi. Google Maps.


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