SIX volcanoes are now erupting in the wake of last week’s 8.8 megaquake.
A chain of volcanoes has been set off – with the Ring of Fire roaring back to life with one volcano even erupting for the first time in 600 years on Sunday evening.
11
11
11
11
Explosions sent ash as high as 5.28 miles above sea level.
Dramatic new footage shows the unprecedented activity in the seismic Kamchatka peninsula on Russia’s east coast as multiple volcanoes show increased activity.
Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the largest volcano in the region, exploded at three miles with a stream of scalding lava just hours after the enormous earthquake in the Pacific last week.
The 7,000 year old volcano has been active since April but the volcano is now “exhibiting heightened unrest with increased likelihood of eruption”.
Then on Sunday, the Krasheninnikov volcano spewed a colossal column of ash nearly four miles into the sky in the “historic” eruption.
Shiveluch volcano – some two miles high – is now seen as in the erupting stage.
Another erupting volcano Bezymianny – at 1.8 miles high – is issuing “aerosol clouds [which] may pose a hazard to local flights”.
The smaller Karymsky at nearly one mile – is showing similar signs, and also erupting.
Avachinsky – some 1.7 miles high – erupted due to the 30 July earthquake which triggered tsunami warnings around the Pacific Ocean.
And the alarm was raised on Monday evening local time over rumbling at a third site, the Mutnovsky volcano.
Several more are displaying the same thermal anomalies – meaning rising temperatures which may indicate imminent eruption.
One is Kambalny, a 1.3 miles high volcano which last erupted in 2017.
There is a high probability that it has also entered the eruption stage under the influence of the seismic events of July 30, say experts.
Thermal anomalies had been recorded by satellites at Mutnovsky too – which last erupted in 2000.
A warning said: “Considering the recent seismic activation of this volcano, as well as the seismogenic activation of a number of other volcanoes on the peninsula, it is STRONGLY not recommended for visiting.
“Even thinking about the route to the crater now is complete madness.”
“Today we are witnessing an extremely rare phenomenon, which I can call a parade of volcanic eruptions,” said Alexei Ozerov, director of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The last time something like this was observed was in 1737, when an earthquake of magnitude 9 occurred in Kamchatka.
11
11
11
11
The string of geological detonations was ignited by a monster 8.8 magnitude earthquake last Wednesday – the sixth-strongest ever recorded.
Its epicentre was around 84 miles southeast of the Kamchatka Peninsula and triggered tsunami warnings across a wide area around the Pacific.
Whilst the destructive tsunami waves feared thankfully did not materialise, heartbreaking videos did emerge of whales killed by the quake washing up on beaches.
Dr Alexey Ozerov, Director of the Russian Institute of Volcanic and Seismic Sciences, said that there was a “direct connection” between the powerful earthquake and these eruptions.
The volcanoes being activated lie along the “Ring of Fire” – an enormous horseshoe-shaped strip surrounding the Pacific Ocean which contains hundreds of volcanoes.
Dr Ozerov said: “We associate the eruptions with the earthquake, which activated magmatic centres, and ‘pumped’ additional energy into them.”
Scientists explain that the powerful earthquake likely destabilised the earth‘s crust and created fractures which magma can push through.
Dr Jonathan Paul, a volcanologist from Royal Holloway University of London, told the Daily Mail: “The earthquake released a huge amount of stress in the crust, which could have made an eruption easier by opening up new lines of weakness through which magma could travel upwards.”
He said the delay between the initial earthquake and the eruption of Krasheninnikov was likely due to the fact that cracks in the rock take time to develop.
In the interim period, magma would have been forcing itself through new lines of weakness and building up enough pressure to break through, he said.
The succession of eruptions has sparked fears that more are on the way along the Ring of Fire volcanoes – 160 of which are in Kamchatka.
Michael Manga, a geoscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, previously said: “The volcanoes in volcanic arcs, including Chile, the US Cascades, Japan, Indonesia and Kamchatka, are prone to erupt after earthquakes.”
11
11
11
The last time Krasheninnikov erupted was sometime between 1423 and 1503.
KVERT issued an aviation “red alert” warning of significant levels of ash in the air.
As of Monday evening local time, the eruption remained active with the emergency group warning that ash explosions of up to 10 km could occur at any time.
Russian volcanologist Alexei Ozerov said of the Krasheninnikov eruption: “A crack opened up along the volcano from the top of the crater, and a steam-gas mixture is currently rising from this crack.
“Emissions are occurring, and a large amount of ash was ejected during the opening of the crater crack.
“This ash reached the Valley of Geysers, and the smell of gas.
“A question is immediately raised about the evacuation of the Valley of Geysers, those tourists who are there.”
What is the Ring of Fire?
THE Ring of Fire is an enormous horseshoe-shaped band around the Pacific Ocean which experiences extremely elevated tectonic activity.
Around 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur within the bounds of the 25,000 mile-long, 300 mile-wide zone.
And somewhere between 750 and 915 volcanoes lie in the zone, depending on which areas are included.
The density of earthquakes and volcanoes along the Ring of Fire is created by the borders of various tectonic plates meeting.
Primarily, it is the Pacific Plate interacting with others – such as the the Eurasian, North American, and Australian plates.
These are constantly moving past, colliding with and sliding beneath one another, creating an immense amount of stress and pressure in the earth’s crust.
The Ring of Fire traces the Pacific coast up from the southern tip of South America, along the coast of North America, across to Asia and down the coasts of Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia before reaching New Zealand.
