Volcano in Russia's Kamchatka ejects ash up to 9.2 km high

Vladivostok, Oct 4 (IANS) The Kronotsky volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula spewed ash to a height of 9.2 kilometres above sea level on Saturday, local authorities said.

The ash ejection occurred at 11:50 a.m. local time (2350 GMT Friday), sending an ash plume stretching about 85 kilometres to the south and southeast of the volcano, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team said on its Telegram channel.

A red aviation colour code has been issued, indicating a high hazard for both the local and international air traffic, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Kronotsky volcano is located about 225 kilometres from the regional capital of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and 10 kilometres east of Lake Kronotskoye.

This comes just months after six volcanoes erupted in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Scientists called it a highly unusual phenomenon.

"According to our data, the last time such widespread volcanic activity occurred in Kamchatka was in 1737, following a magnitude-9 earthquake," Alexey Ozerov, director of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was quoted by TASS news agency as saying.

Ozerov said the powerful seismic event on July 30 may have reawakened the region's "sleeping giants."

Yury Demyanchuk, head of the volcanology station in the village of Klyuchi, said he had not seen such widespread volcanic activity in his five decades of work in Kamchatka.

"On Krasheninnikov Volcano, both summit and central eruptions have begun simultaneously, which may indicate intense internal seismic processes. As for Kambalny Volcano, I last worked on it in 1979. While it has been quiet for decades, it should not be considered extinct," Demyanchuk said.

He noted that the previous eruption of Krasheninnikov likely occurred in the 15th century and is known only from layers of volcanic ash.

Authorities are warning residents and visitors to stay away from the active volcanoes.

--IANS

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