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Metro
6 days ago
- Science
- Metro
Ring of Fire volcano erupts for the first time for 600 years
Hiyah Zaidi Published August 5, 2025 3:29pm Link is copied Comments The megaquake that struck last week has led to a volcano erupting for the first time in 600 years, an expert says. The Krasheninnikov Volcano in Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, which sits in the Ring of Fire, erupted into life on August 3, sending a plume of ash 3.7 miles (6 km) into the sky. No one was hurt, but the event was called historic. So, what happened? (Picture: Getty Images) In late July, the sixth-strongest earthquake ever recorded hit Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The quake was so strong it triggered tsunami warnings around the world, which affected the coasts of the US, parts of East Asia, parts of South America and New Zealand. The tremor reached a volcano in the Kamchatka region, and possibly contributed to this dormant volcano awakening (Picture: Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images) One expert, Dr Alexey Ozerov, director of the Russian Institute of Volcanic and Seismic Sciences, told the Daily Mail there was a direct connection between the powerful earthquake and these eruptions. He said: 'We associate the eruptions with the earthquake, which activated magmatic centres, and "pumped" additional energy into them' (Picture: Sheldovitsky Artem Igorevich / IViS / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images) Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti: 'This is the first historically confirmed eruption of Krasheninnikov Volcano in 600 years.' And the team reported that clouds of ash travelled 46 miles from the blast. Around nine hours after the eruption, KVERT issued an aviation 'red alert' warning of significant levels of ash being sent into the atmosphere (Picture: Sheldovitsky Artem Igorevich / IViS / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images) CNN reports that in the Telegram channel of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Girina said that Krasheninnikov's last lava effusion took place in 1463, plus or minus 40 years, and no eruption has taken place since. Today (August 5), the channel reports that the volcano is still erupting, with emissions reaching six kilometers, and warns that emissions can reach up to 8 kilometers. The volcano has been assigned an orange (high) aviation hazard code (Picture: Getty) There have been no reports of injuries, and the local Nature Reserve said: 'The volcano's surroundings are volcanic wastelands, slag and lava fields without dense vegetation. There is currently no threat of a natural fire. The volcano's condition is being monitored. There is no threat to the lives of the reserve's employees, infrastructure or populated areas. Ash fall from the erupting volcano is observed in some areas of the Kronotsky Reserve' (Picture: Getty) There is an exceptionally high density of active volcanoes in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula as it sits directly above the Ring of Fire, which is a 25,000-mile chain of volcanoes that stretches around the Pacific Ocean. The area is home to over 425 volcanoes, making up 75% of all active volcanic sites on Earth. This also includes some of the most destructive volcanoes ever to erupt, including Krakatoa, Mount Tambora, and Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (Picture: Metro)
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Yahoo
What to Know About Russia's ‘Historic' Volcano Eruption
The Krasheninnikov volcanic eruption, photographed on Aug 3, 2025, by a Snow Valley tour guide, on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Credit - Sheldovitsky Artem Igorevich—Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, FEB RAS When the sixth-strongest earthquake ever recorded hit Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula last week, it triggered tsunami warnings around the world as waves rippled across the Pacific as far as the U.S., Latin America, and even New Zealand. It also may have contributed to the eruption of a long-dormant volcano. Early Sunday on the same sparsely populated peninsula, the Krasheninnikov volcano spewed white ash clouds into the sky for the first time in hundreds of years. The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) called it a 'historic' eruption. There is some discrepancy about when exactly the volcano's last known eruption took place. According to KVERT, Krasheninnikov's 'last lava effusion' occurred between 1423 and 1503. According to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, it was around 1550. About 9.5 hours after the eruption began, KVERT issued an aviation red alert, warning aircraft of 'significant emission of ash into the atmosphere.' Satellite data indicated 'explosions sent ash up to 8-8.5 km a.s.l.' (appx. 5 mi). The volcano's activity decreased later Sunday, according to KVERT, which downgraded the aviation alert to orange, but as of Monday evening local time, the eruption remained ongoing, and KVERT warned that 'ash explosions up to 10 km (32,800 ft) a.s.l. could occur at any time.' No danger 'The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path. No ash falls were recorded in populated areas. There are no registered tourist groups in the area of the volcano,' the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Kamchatka Territory posted on Telegram. KVERT said the ash plume had drifted more than 500 km (over 300 mi) by Monday evening. Krasheninnikov is located in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which said in a statement that there is no threat to any people or infrastructure as the volcano is largely surrounded by wastelands. 'Of course, a volcanic eruption is a vivid and interesting event, primarily for scientists,' Vsevolod Yakovlev, the director of the reserve, said in the statement. But, he added, Krasheninnikov's 'eruption is not something out of the ordinary for a region with high volcanic activity.' Indeed, the Kamchatka Peninsula was recognized in 1996 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its 'high density of active volcanoes.' The peninsula's Klyuchevskoy volcano, which is the largest active volcano in the northern hemisphere, erupted just hours after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake on July 30. A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) representative told LiveScience that the quake 'did not cause' the eruption as the volcano was already 'showing signs of unrest' in the days and weeks before, though it likely intensified the 'vigor of the eruption including some ash emission.' How are earthquakes and volcanoes related? Earthquakes and volcanic activity both stem from the movement of the earth's tectonic plates. Volcanic and seismic activity are common at the boundaries of such plates. The Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that there is a 'direct connection' between last week's historic earthquake and the activation of volcanoes that occurred after. The earthquake, the institute's director Alexey Ozerov said, 'activated magmatic centers, 'pumped' additional energy into them.' Krashennikov's eruption may not have been entirely triggered by the earlier, nearby 8.8 earthquake, Harold Tobin, a professor of seismology and geohazards at the University of Washington, told NPR. But, Tobin noted, the quake's seismic waves may have acted to 'shake loose the system that then allows it to actually erupt.' According to the USGS, earthquakes can sometimes trigger volcanic eruptions: 'A few large regional earthquakes (greater than magnitude 6) are considered to be related to a subsequent eruption or to some type of unrest at a nearby volcano.' According to the USGS, 'volcanoes can only be triggered into eruption by nearby tectonic earthquakes if they are already poised to erupt.' If there is already enough eruptible magma within the volcanic system and significant pressure within the magma storage region, large tectonic earthquakes might cause dissolved gases to come out of the magma, increasing the pressure and causing an eruption, the agency says, likening the effect to 'a shaken soda bottle.' Contact us at letters@
