Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 04-08
Thursday, January 24, 2007,  22:30  UTC (Friday, January 25, 10:30 KST)

SUMMARY OF LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODES:

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

NORTHERN  KURILES:
CHIKURACHKI, EBEKO and ALAID: GREEN

SHEVELUCH VOLCANO:  56°38'N, 161°19'E; Elevation  3,283 m, the dome elevation ~2,500  m
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS  ORANGE

Activity of the  volcano continues and ash explosions up to 10 km  (32,800 ft.) ASL could  occur at any time. The activity of the volcano could  affect international  and low-flying aircraft.

Seismic activity was slightly above  background levels last week. Many shallow volcanic earthquakes and weak volcanic  tremor were registered all week. According to seismic data, ash plumes  up to 4.3 km (13,400 ft) ASL occurred at the volcano on January 17-18,  20 and 23. Fumarolic activity of the volcano was noted on January  19-20 and 22. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days. According to satellite  data, a big thermal anomaly was noting all week.

KARYMSKY VOLCANO:   54°03'N, 159°27'E; Elevation 1,486 m
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR   CODE: YELLOW

Activity of Karymsky can resume at any time and ash  explosions up to 6 km (or 19,700 ft.) ASL  could occur. The explosive  activity of the volcano could affect low-flying  aircraft in the vicinity  of the volcano.

There was not seismic data from January 14 to present time, by technical reasons. According to satellite data, the volcano was quiet last week. Ash deposits in the south and south-east directions from the  volcano were noted on the snow on January 16, 00:31  UTC (TERRA MODIS satellite data, "Rosgeolfond" MPR RF, Sakhalin and KVERT).

BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO:  55°58'N, 160°36'E;  Elevation 2,895 m
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR  CODE IS   YELLOW

Growth of the lava dome continues. Possibly a  viscous lava flow is effusing at the lava dome. Sudden ash emission related to  this   activity could affect low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of the    volcano.

Seismic activity was at the background levels last week. According to visual and video data, a moderate fumarolic activity was  observed at the lava dome on January 18-21 and 24-25. According to satellite data, a  weak thermal anomaly over the dome  was observing on January 17-20. Clouds  obscured the volcano in the other days last week.

IF YOU HAVE ANY  QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT:

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

Irina Nuzhdina, 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 Kuriles  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