mobile | Contact | subscribe report news || Français | Deutsch
edit translation
|share
Tectonic map of the Kamchatka peninsula and the Kurile islands. Red triangles show active volcanoes. (Map created using the UNAVCO / Voyager map tool, featuring Face of the Earth)
Tectonic map of the Kamchatka peninsula and the Kurile islands. Red triangles show active volcanoes. (Map created using the UNAVCO / Voyager map tool, featuring Face of the Earth)
Map of Kamchatka's major active volcanoes (basemap: NASA).
Map of Kamchatka's major active volcanoes (basemap: NASA).

Latest news:

Karymsky volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) activity update: possible intermittent weak ash explosions
Thursday, Feb 02, 2012
KVERT reported that seismic activity continued at a moderate level at Karymsky during 19-27 January and indicated that ash plumes possibly rose to an altitude of 3 km (9,840 ft) a.s.l. during 19-21 and on 25 January. Satellite imagery showed a thermal anomaly at the volcano during 21-24 January and gas-and-steam plumes containing ash that were drifting as far as 70 km NW on 23 January. The Aviation Color Code remained at Orange. [more]
Kizimen volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) activity update: large lava flow on the E flank and accompanying hot avalanches
Shiveluch volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) activity update: growing lava dome in summit crate, occasional hot avalanches and ash explosions, plumes up to 6 km altitude
Satellite imagery showed a daily thermal anomaly over the lava dome. Ground-based observers noted that a viscous lava flow continued to effuse in the crater that was formed during a 2010 eruption. Moderate fumarolic activity at the lava dome and occasional hot avalanches were observed during 25-26 January; clouds prevented observations on the other days of the week. Ash plumes rose to altitudes of 5-6 km (16,400-19,700 ft) a.s.l. and drifted 174 km NE on 23 January.
Karymsky volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) activity update: sporadic weak ash eruptions
Thursday, Jan 19, 2012
Seismic activity continued at a moderate level at Karymsky during 6-13 January. Possible ash plumes rose to an altitude of 4.2 km (13,800 ft) a.s.l. Satellite imagery showed a thermal anomaly at the volcano during 5-11 January and weak ash plumes that drifted 40 km E and NE on 6, 7, and 11 January.
Shiveluch volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) activity update: growing lava dome with lava flow inside crater
KVERT reported that low levels of seismic activity were detected at Shiveluch during 6-13 January. Satellite imagery showed a daily thermal anomaly over the lava dome. Ground-based observers noted that a viscous lava flow continued to effuse in the crater that was formed during a 2010 eruption and hot avalanches from the lava flow were observed at night with a web camera. Moderate fumarolic activity at the lava dome was observed all week except on 10 January. [more]
Kizimen volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) activity update: large lava flow on the E flank and accompanying hot avalanches
Saturday, Jan 14, 2012
KVERT reported moderate seismic activity at Kizimen during 6-13 January and a large thermal anomaly that was detected daily in satellite images. Video and satellite observations indicated both continued effusion of a large lava flow on the E flank and accompanying hot avalanches. [more]
to top

Volcanoes of Kamchatka

Shiveluch | Kliuchevskoi | Bezymianny | Kizimen | Karymsky | Koryaksky | Avachinsky | Gorely
Shiveluch
(stratovolcano)		 Shiveluch (Sheveluch) volcano is one of one of Kamchatka's largest and most active volcanoes, and the one that has had the most violent eruptions. [more]
Kliuchevskoi
(stratovolcano)		 Kliuchevskoi volcano (also spelled Kliuchevsky, Klyuchevskaya) is Kamchatka's highest and one of the world's most active volcanoes.
Kliuchevsky is located in a remote area of the Kamchatka peninsula. It has a large active crater with frequent strombolian and lava fountain ... [more]
Bezymianny
(stratovolcano)		 Bezymianny ("unnamed") was considered extinct until it erupted violently in 1955-56, after a slumber of probably 1000 years. It is one of the most active volcanoes in Kamchatka. The eruption followed a massive flank failure (similar to Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980) which remov... [more]
Kizimen
(stratovolcano)		 Kizimen volcano is an isolated, conical stratovolcano located in the Shchapina graben on the SE margin of the Central Kamchatkan Valley. After almost a century of quiet, it started to become restless in 2009 and erupt in late 2010. The new ongoing eruption has been building a new... [more]
Karymsky
(stratovolcano)		 Karymsky is the most active volcano of Kamchatka's eastern volcanic zone and a perfect symmetrical stratovolcano. Ash eruptions from Karymski can come in the way of aircraft flight routes across the N Pacific. Karymsky, the most active volcano of Kamchatka's eastern volcanic zone... [more]
Koryaksky
(stratovolcano)		 Koryaksky in the SE of the Kamchatka peninsula and near its capital Petropavlovsk is one of Kamchatka's most beautiful and prominent stratovolcanoes. [more]
Avachinsky
(stratovolcano)		 Avachinsky towering above Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka's largest city, is one of Kamchatka's most active volcanoes. It typically erupts every few years to decades, often producing ash flows and lahars. [more]
Gorely
(Stratovolcano (caldera))		 The second and active summit crater of Gorely, with a boiling and acid green lake seen from SW. (photo: Marco Fulle)Gorely volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in southern Kamchatka and located 75 km SW of Petropavlovsk. It is a complex of several overlapping stratovolcanoes with many summit and flank craters. Activity in historic times were mainly small to medium-sized ash and steam er... [more]

Volcanoes of Kamchatka

The Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) is one of the most volcanically active volcanic places on earth, second only perhaps to Iceland and Hawaii. In this part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire", there are over 100 active volcanoes (the Smithsonian Institution lists 109) and about 30 volcanoes that have erupted recently, in addition to hundreds of smaller monogenetic vents (i.e. that have formed during one single eruption)
The active volcanoes form a 700-km long volcanic belt from Shiveluch in the north to Kambalny in the south. The vigorous volcanism on Kamchatka, like that of the adjacent Aleutian and Kurile island arcs, is produced by the subduction of the Pacific plate under the E margin of the Eurasian plate.
During the past 10,000 years, at least about 30 very large (so-called Plinian) eruptions have occurred in Kamchatka, i.e. eruptions that have ejected more than 1 cubic kilometer of magma. With this record, Kamchatka is by far the place on earth with the greatest frequency of large explosive eruptions.
The most active volcanoes on Kamchatka are Klyuchevsky, Shiveluch, Karymsky and Bezymianny.
to top