Kamchatkan and Northern Kurile Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 06-07
Friday, February 09, 2007, 10:50 KST (22:50 UTC on February 08)

SUMMARY OF LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODES:

KAMCHATKA:
KARYMSKY and SHEVELUCH: ORANGE
KLYUCHEVSKOY and BEZYMIANNY: YELLOW
TOLBACHIK PLOSKY, KIZIMEN, AVACHINSKY, KORYAKSKY, MUTNOVSKY and GORELY: GREEN

NORTHERN KURILE:
EBEKO, CHIKURACHKI and ALAID: GREEN

SHEVELUCH VOLCANO: 56œ38'N, 161œ19'E; Elevation 3,283 m, the dome elevation ~2,500 m.
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS ORANGE

Growth of the lava dome continues. A hot lava extrudes at the top of the dome. Ash explosions up to 10 km (32,800 ft.) ASL could occur at any time. The activity of the volcano could affect international and local aircraft.

Seismic activity was above background levels last week, over 200 volcanic earthquakes and volcanic tremor were registered. According to seismic data, probably ash plumes up to 4.0 km (13,120 ft) ASL occurred at the volcano all week. According to visual and video and satellite data, gas-steam plumes containing ash rose up to 5.5 km (18,045 ft) andextended about 120 km (75 mi) to the north-east and north-west from the volcano last weak. A big thermal anomaly was noting all week.

KARYMSKY VOLCANO: 54œ03'N, 159œ27'E; Elevation 1,486 m.
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS ORANGE

An eruption of the volcano continues. Ash explosions up to 6 km (or 19,700 ft.) ASL are possible. The activity of the volcano could affect low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of the volcano.

Seismic activity was above background levels last week. According to seismic data, a number of weak local shallow earthquakes was 80-400 per day and possibly, ash explosions up to 4.0 km (13,123 ft) ASL occurred last week. According to the data from AMC Yelizovo, a gas-steam plume extending to the east from the volcano was observed by pilots of local airlines at 22:50 UTC on February 05. According to satellite data, a thermal anomaly over the volcano was noted on January 03-04 and 06-07.

BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO: 55œ58'N, 160œ36'E; Elevation 2,895 m
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW

Growth of the lava dome continues. The activity of the volcano could affect low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of the volcano.

Seismic activity did not exceed background levels all week. According to visual and video data, gas-steam plumes rose up to 3.5 km (9,843) ASL and extended to the north-east on February 02-05. According to satellite data, a thermal anomaly over the lava dome was noted all week.

KLYUCHEVSKOY VOLCANO; 56œ03'N, 160œ39'E; Elevation 4,750 m
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW

Seismic activity of the volcano continues. The activity of the summit volcanic crater, possibly, could affect international and low-flying aircraft.

Seismicity was at background levels on January 01, and above background levels on the other days of the week. A volcanic tremor was registered on February 01-03 and 05-06. According to visual observations, a weak fumarolic activity of the volcano was noted this week.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT:

Olga Girina, KVERT, IVS FED RAS
E-mail:
girina@kscnet.ru
Tel. (41522) 58627

Sergey Senyukov, KVERT, KB GS RAS
E-mail:
ssl@emsd.iks.ru
Tel. (41522) 59523

Tom Murray, Scientist-in-Charge, AVO
E-mail:
tlmurray@usgs.gov
Tel. 907-786-7497

The Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) is a non-commercial cooperative program of the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO, USA), the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (IVS) FED RAS and the Kamchatkan Branch of Geophysical Survey (KB GS) RAS (Russia). KVERT staff is available in the office from 8:30 AM till 6:00 PM (KST or KDT) and by phone during the evenings. KVERT uses daily satellite imagery, information from remote scientific observation stations, real-time seismic data for 10 volcanoes, and other information to monitor activity at Kamchatkan and Northern Kurile Volcanoes.

The official web-page of KVERT (the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology FED RAS):
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/index.html
Archive of daily information KB GS RAS: ftp://emsd.iks.ru/pub/DATA/RTS/Volcanoes
KVERT Information Releases at the web-page of AVO (Alaska Volcano Observatory): http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/avoreport.php?view=kaminfo