A volcano in Russia’s far east erupts for the first time in centuries
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A volcano on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula erupted overnight into Sunday for the first time in hundreds of years, scientists said, days after a massive, magnitude 8.8 earthquake.
The Krasheninnikov volcano sent ash about 4 miles into the sky, according to staff at the Kronotsky Reserve, where the volcano is. Images released by state media showed dense clouds of ash rising above the volcano.
“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,” Kamchatka’s emergencies ministry wrote on Telegram during the eruption.
The eruption was accompanied by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake and prompted a tsunami warning for three areas of Kamchatka. The tsunami warning was later lifted by Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services.
“This is the first historically confirmed eruption of the Krasheninnikov volcano in 600 years,” Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The U.S.-based Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program lists Krasheninnikov’s last eruption as occurring 475 years ago, in 1550. The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.
The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team said late Sunday that the volcano’s activity was decreasing but that “moderate explosive activity” could continue.
The eruption occurred after a huge earthquake struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, a magnitude 8.8 temblor that caused small tsunami waves in Japan and Alaska and even smaller ones in Southern California. The quake prompted warnings for Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south toward New Zealand.
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