When the powerful earthquake struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula last week, it initiated tsunamis as waves propagated across the Pacific, reaching as far as the U.S., Latin America, and even New Zealand. It might also have contributed to the eruption of a volcano that had been dormant for a long time.
Early on Sunday, on the same sparsely populated peninsula, the Krasheninnikov volcano discharged white ash clouds into the sky for the first time in centuries. The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) described it as a “historic” eruption.
There is some variance regarding the exact timing of the volcano’s last known eruption. According to KVERT, Krasheninnikov’s “last lava effusion” occurred between 1423 and 1503. Conversely, the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program states it was around 1550.
Approximately 9.5 hours after the eruption commenced, KVERT issued an aviation alert, cautioning aircraft of “significant emission of ash into the atmosphere.” Satellite data indicated that “explosions sent ash up to 8-8.5 km a.s.l.” (approximately 5 miles).
The volcano’s activity subsequently diminished, according to KVERT, which downgraded the aviation alert to orange; however, as of Monday evening, the eruption remained ongoing, and KVERT warned that “ash explosions up to 10 km (32,800 ft) a.s.l. could occur at any time.”
No immediate danger
“The ash plume is extending eastward from the volcano towards the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas in its trajectory. No ash falls were reported in inhabited regions. There are no registered tourist groups in the vicinity of the volcano,” the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Kamchatka Territory announced. KVERT stated that the ash plume had traveled over 500 km (more than 300 miles) by Monday evening.
Krasheninnikov is situated within the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which stated in a press release that there is no threat to any individuals or infrastructure as the volcano is largely surrounded by unpopulated areas.
“Certainly, a volcanic eruption is a striking and interesting event, primarily for scientists,” Vsevolod Yakovlev, the reserve’s director, commented in the statement. However, he added, Krasheninnikov’s “eruption is not extraordinary for a region with considerable volcanic activity.”
Indeed, the Kamchatka Peninsula was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 for its “outstanding natural beauty.”
The peninsula’s Klyuchevskoy volcano, which stands as the largest active volcano in the northern hemisphere, erupted merely hours after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake on July 30. A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) representative informed TIME that the quake “did not cause” the eruption, as the volcano was already “showing signs of unrest” in the preceding days and weeks, though it likely intensified the “vigor of the eruption including some ash emission.”
How do earthquakes and volcanoes interconnect?
Both earthquakes and volcanic activity originate from the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates. Volcanic and seismic activity are frequently observed at the boundaries of these plates.
The Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences declared that there is a “direct connection” between last week’s significant earthquake and the subsequent activation of volcanoes. The earthquake, according to the institute’s director Alexey Ozerov, “activated magmatic centers, ‘pumped’ additional energy into them.”
Krashennikov’s eruption may not have been entirely set off by the earlier, nearby 8.8 earthquake, Harold Tobin, a professor of seismology and geohazards at the University of Washington, told TIME. But, Tobin noted, the quake’s seismic waves may have served to “shake loose the system that then allows it to actually erupt.”
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, earthquakes can sometimes trigger volcanic eruptions: “A few large regional earthquakes (greater than magnitude 6) are considered to be related to a subsequent eruption or to some type of unrest at a nearby volcano.”
According to the USGS, “volcanoes can only be triggered into eruption by nearby tectonic earthquakes if they are already poised to erupt.” If there is already sufficient eruptible magma within the volcanic system and significant pressure within the magma storage region, substantial tectonic earthquakes might cause dissolved gases to release from the magma, increasing the pressure and resulting in an eruption, the agency explains, likening the effect to “a shaken soda bottle.”
