MOSCOW: A volcano erupted for the primary time in 475 years in Russia’s japanese Kamchatka area, the nation’s emergency authority stated on Sunday (Aug 3), days after one of many strongest earthquakes on report hit the area.
Footage launched by Russian state media present a towering plume of ash spewing from the Krasheninnikov volcano, which final erupted in 1550, based on the Smithsonian Establishment’s World Volcanism Program.
The plume is estimated to have reached an altitude of 6,000m, Kamchatka’s Ministry of Emergency Conditions stated in a submit on Telegram.
“The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano towards the Pacific Ocean. There aren’t any populated areas alongside its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,” the ministry stated.
The volcano has been assigned an “orange” aviation hazard code, the ministry added, which means flights within the space could also be disrupted.
It got here after Klyuchevskoy, one other volcano within the area – the very best energetic in Europe and Asia – erupted on Wednesday.
Eruptions of Klyuchevskoy are fairly frequent, with at the least 18 occurring since 2000, based on the World Volcanism Program.
Each latest eruptions adopted one of many strongest earthquakes recorded, which struck on Wednesday, sparking tsunami warnings and evacuations of hundreds of thousands of individuals from coastal areas from Japan to Hawaii to Ecuador.
The worst injury was seen in Russia, the place a tsunami crashed by way of the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged a fishing plant, officers stated.
The 8.8-magnitude quake struck off Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula and was the strongest since 2011, when a 9.1-magnitude quake off Japan brought on a tsunami that killed greater than 15,000 individuals.
