
Russia volcano erupts for first time in 450 years
MOSCOW: A volcano erupted for the first time in 450 years in Russia's eastern Kamchatka region, the nation's emergency authority said Sunday, days after one of the strongest earthquakes on record hit the region. Pictures released by Russian state media show a towering plume of ash spewing from the Krasheninnikov volcano, which last erupted in 1550, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.
The plume is estimated to have reached an altitude of 6,000 meters (19,700 feet), Kamchatka's Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a post on Telegram. 'The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,' the ministry said.
The volcano has been assigned an 'orange' aviation hazard code, the ministry added, meaning flights in the area may be disrupted. It came after Klyuchevskoy, another volcano in the region—the highest active in Europe and Asia—erupted on Wednesday. Eruptions of Klyuchevskoy are quite common, with at least 18 occurring since 2000, according to the Global Volcanism Program.
Both recent eruptions followed one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, which struck on Wednesday, sparking tsunami warnings and evacuations of millions of people from coastal areas from Japan to Hawaii to Ecuador. The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged a fishing plant, officials said. The magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Petropavlovsk on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula and was the strongest since 2011 when a magnitude 9.1 quake off Japan caused a tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people. - AFP
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Kuwait Times
21 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Russia volcano erupts for first time in 450 years
A towering plume of ash spewing from Russia's Krasheninnikov volcano, which has erupted for the first time in 450 years. -- AFP MOSCOW: A volcano erupted for the first time in 450 years in Russia's eastern Kamchatka region, the nation's emergency authority said Sunday, days after one of the strongest earthquakes on record hit the region. Pictures released by Russian state media show a towering plume of ash spewing from the Krasheninnikov volcano, which last erupted in 1550, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program. The plume is estimated to have reached an altitude of 6,000 meters (19,700 feet), Kamchatka's Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a post on Telegram. 'The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,' the ministry said. The volcano has been assigned an 'orange' aviation hazard code, the ministry added, meaning flights in the area may be disrupted. It came after Klyuchevskoy, another volcano in the region—the highest active in Europe and Asia—erupted on Wednesday. Eruptions of Klyuchevskoy are quite common, with at least 18 occurring since 2000, according to the Global Volcanism Program. Both recent eruptions followed one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, which struck on Wednesday, sparking tsunami warnings and evacuations of millions of people from coastal areas from Japan to Hawaii to Ecuador. The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged a fishing plant, officials said. The magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Petropavlovsk on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula and was the strongest since 2011 when a magnitude 9.1 quake off Japan caused a tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people. - AFP


Arab Times
4 days ago
- Arab Times
Tsunami evacuations ordered in South America
HONOLULU, July 31, (AP): Fears of a devastating tsunami across the Pacific faded Wednesday after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off a sparsely populated Russian peninsula, but communities along South America's Pacific coast carried out evacuations and closed beaches. Warnings in the first hours after the 8.8 magnitude quake sent people fleeing to rooftops in Japan and forced tourists out of beachfront hotels in Hawaii, snarling island traffic. One death was reported in Japan, and in Russia, several people were hurt while rushing out of buildings, including a hospital patient who jumped from a window. Millions of people were told to move away from the shore or seek high ground because they were potentially in the path of the tsunami waves, which struck seaside areas of Japan, Hawaii and the US West Coast but did not appear to cause any major damage. The dire warnings following the massive quake early Wednesday off Russia's Kamchatka peninsula evoked memories of catastrophic damage caused by tsunamis this century. In Japan, people flocked to evacuation centers, hilltop parks and rooftops in towns on the Pacific coast with fresh memories of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused a nuclear disaster. Cars jammed streets and highways in Honolulu, with traffic at a standstill even far from the sea. "We've got water, we got some snacks ... we're going to stay elevated,' said Jimmy Markowski, whose family from Hot Springs, Arkansas, fled their Waikiki beach resort before evacuation orders were lifted. "This is our first tsunami warning ever. So this is all new to us.' US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the worst had passed. Later Wednesday, tsunami advisories for Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon and Washington state were canceled but remained for parts of northern California, where authorities warned to stay away from beaches and advised that dangerous currents should be expected through Thursday morning. Experts say it's challenging to know when to drop advisories, which signal the potential for strong currents, dangerous waves and flooding. "It's kind of hard to predict because this is such an impactful event and has created so many of these waves passing by,' said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska.

Kuwait Times
5 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Shanghai evacuates 283,000 people as typhoon hits
SHANGHAI: Shanghai has evacuated almost 283,000 people from vulnerable coastal and low-lying areas as Typhoon Co-May made landfall in the Chinese financial hub on Wednesday evening, bringing lashing rains and winds. Almost a third of flights from Shanghai's two international airports have been cancelled, the city's news service said, totaling around 640. The Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory upgraded an earlier yellow rainstorm alert to orange on Wednesday afternoon, the second-highest warning level. Typhoon Co-May first made landfall in eastern Zhejiang province around 4:30 am Wednesday (2030 GMT Tuesday), with winds near its center of 83 kilometers (52 miles) per hour. 'From last night to 10:00 am today, 282,800 people have been evacuated and relocated, basically achieving the goal of evacuating all those who needed to be evacuated,' state broadcaster CCTV reported. More than 1,900 temporary shelters have been set up across the city, authorities said. In a village on the outskirts of Shanghai on Wednesday evening, one such shelter—a large hall filled with dozens of iron beds—was mostly occupied by elderly people, AFP reporters saw. Around 20 people sat on beds or gathered around tables to eat dinner, along with local community staff. Sheets of rain inundated the city without pause on Wednesday, with pedestrians bracing their umbrellas against gusts and delivery drivers splashing through huge puddles as they made their way through sodden streets. Ferry services have been cancelled, additional speed limits are in place on highways, and there has been some disruption to metro and train services. However, Shanghai's Legoland and Disneyland remained open on Wednesday morning. As the typhoon tracked northwest after making landfall in the morning, live shots from China's eastern coast showed waves overrunning seaside walkways, while broadcasts from the city of Ningbo showed residents wading through ankle-deep water. Separately, China issued a tsunami warning for parts of the eastern seaboard after a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. However, the warning was later lifted, according to CCTV. Co-May was downgraded to a tropical storm before leaving the Philippines, and then strengthened again over the South China Sea. Its passage has had an indirect link to extreme weather in northern China, Chen Tao, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, told the state-run China Daily. Heavy rain there has killed more than 30 people and forced authorities to evacuate tens of thousands, state media reported Tuesday. 'Typhoon activity can influence atmospheric circulation... thereby altering the northward transport of moisture,' Chen said. Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat. China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change and contribute to making extreme weather more frequent and intense. But it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060. – AFP