The Bezymyanny volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula has started to erupt

The Bezymyanny volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula has started to erupt, the Kamchatka branch of the geophysical service of the Russian Academy of Sciences told Itar-Tass.

The intensification of the giant mount’s activity was registered at 00:30, local time (16:30, MSK on May 31). The most active phase lasted for 20 minutes, scientists say. During this period the volcano was spewing ash that stretched in a plume towards the Sea of Okhotsk (west of the volcano). According to specialists, the ash plume has stretched for 20 kilometres. A small ash fall was registered in the Kozyrevsk settlement (40 km from the volcano) on Kamchatka.

A hot rock and mud flow came down the volcano. The aviation code Red has been given to the volcano. All concerned services have been informed about the danger that the volcanic ash may present for aircraft, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) reported. The eruption’s intensity has subsided, as compared with the initial phase, but the giant mount maintains activity, specialists noted. Bezymyanny is one of 29 active volcanoes of Kamchatka.

Its height is about 2,800 metres above sea level. Its eruptions are explosive. They occur one or two times a year and may last from several hours to several days. In recent years scientists have managed to predict the periods of its activity intensification rather correctly. Bezymyanny is an active stratovolcano in Kamchatka.

The volcano’s name means “nameless,” and it was considered to be extinct before the 1955 eruption. Bezymyanny is located on the southeast slope of the extinct volcano Kamen. Its greatest eruption happened in 1955-1956 which lowered the top of the mountain by about 200 m (600 ft). The surrounding landscape of the mountain was changed by a lateral blast that flattened the area with thick ash and pyroclastic flow-like materials.

The 1956 eruption of Bezymianny was similar to the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the United States. During the 1956 eruption, a debris avalanche removed 0.5 cubic kilometres of material and also produced a “directed blast” as magma became exposed at the surface. A horseshoe-shaped crater was also formed, although it has been largely filled.

Then the volcano that was 3,080 metres high, during a short period of time became lower by 280 metres. Its recent eruption was observed last winter. The volcano is located in the central part of the Klyuchevskaya group 385 kilometres northeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The Nearby populated localities are Klyuchi and Kozyrevsk.

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[edit on 1/6/10 by sandri_90]

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[edit on 1/6/10 by sandri_90]

It is nice to see the fireworks starting again hope everyone is safe in close vicinity, but Earth has to clean herself again and the volcanos help to replenish the atmosphere as well as clean it sorta like natural Earth atmosphere filters. To clean all the bad stuff humanity has put in the atmospheres.