The response team for volcanic eruptions in the Kamchatka Peninsula, located in the far east of Russia, announced that the Shiveluch volcano located on the peninsula erupted in the early hours of Tuesday morning, sending a column of ash 10 kilometers high, which poses an increasing threat to air navigation.
Causes and risks of volcanic activity
Professor of Geophysics and Seismology at the University of Jordan, Najeeb Abu Karaki, said in exclusive statements to Sky News Arabia:
– The volcano area is located within the Pacific Ocean plates, and this region was exposed to an earthquake about a week ago with a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale and a series of earthquakes that could be related to this volcanic activity.
– Russia is a continent with all kinds of possibilities and conditions; It is within the boundaries of plate boundaries on the fringes of the Pacific Ocean, and the closest thing to it is northeastern Japan, and the most important factor is that it is within the shores and the most active Pacific plate among the Earth’s plates.
– Earthquakes and volcanoes are spatially linked to plate boundaries in general, and volcanoes are characterized by the ability to predict their eruptions, which is much easier than predicting earthquakes, which is still impossible.
– As for the prediction of the eruption of the volcano, it is done through a set of indicators, its location is specific, and the movement of volcanic magma can be tracked, which is determined through calculations of the locations of the earthquakes accompanying the movement of magma upward towards the surface.
Volcanoes are monitored by networks of seismic monitors. There is a special type of earthquake called volcanic earthquakes, which is distinctive and very useful for predicting volcanic eruptions when seismic foci approach the surface of the earth in the volcano area.
There are other means and indicators, including measurements of ground deformations and their evolution in volcanic areas, and geophysical measurements, the most important of which is the monitoring of the magnetic field.
– Monitoring the magnetic field, you may notice changes caused by the high temperature of the rocks as a result of the molten lava approaching the surface of the earth, so it loses its magnetism at a certain limit called the Curie temperature, and thus this can be measured and deduced that the volcanic eruption is near.
A volcanic eruption may disrupt air navigation and may cause changes in the weather for weeks, months or years.
– Volcanic activity ranges between eruption and calm for periods and then re-eruption, and most of the volcanic crises and the most dangerous on the outskirts of the Pacific Ocean.
volcanic cloud
The Geophysical Survey Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said on the Telegram application that the ash cloud that followed the volcanic eruption was heading west and south and covering an area of 400 km in length and 270 km in width.
Oleg Bondarenko, mayor of the Ust-Kamchatsky region, said in a post on the Telegram app that local authorities had closed schools and ordered residents in nearby villages to stay at home.
Bondarenko added that the eruption occurred at 6:31 a.m. local time, and that ash was falling on local villages, including the village of Kluchi, where the ash layer reached 8.5 centimeters, according to a report by TASS, citing the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, which is the highest level in 60 years.
The map shows the earthquakes that occurred in the world, during the past two weeks, according to the determinations of the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center. The red circle around the concerned area shows the large white point in which the 6.5-magnitude earthquake occurred a week ago and the aftershocks that followed.