The Kamtchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team recorded a series of small plumes of gas and steam emerging from Mount Klyuchevskoi, a 4750, stratovolcano (cone-shaped volcano made up of successive layers of ash and lava), on the central Kamchatka Peninsula, that forms the highest volcanic edifice anywhere on the Eurasian landmass. These emissions began on Saturday 2 December 2017, with a plume on Tuesday 5 December containing a significant amount of ash and drifting 170 km to the East. A warning has been issued to aviation, due to the hazards presented by volcanic ash, but there is little danger of the volcano causing problems for anyone on the ground due to its remote location.
A volcanic plume over Mount Klyuchevskoi on 3 December 2017. KVERT.
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
fueling 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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