Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION  RELEASE 05-08
Thursday, January 31, 2007, 22:30 UTC (Friday, February 01, 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. Shallow volcanic earthquakes and sometimes weak volcanic tremor were  registered last week. According to seismic data, ash plumes up to 3.9  km (12,480 ft) ASL occurred at the volcano all week. Fumarolic activity of the  volcano was noted on January  24 and 29-30. Clouds obscured the volcano in  the other days. According to satellite data, a thermal anomaly was noting all week.

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 slightly above background levels on January 28 and did not exceed background levels in the other days of the week. According to visual and video  data, a moderate fumarolic activity was observed at the lava dome on January 25 and 28-30. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days last week. According to satellite data, a weak thermal anomaly was noted on January 29.

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

There  was not seismic data from January 14 to present time, by technical reasons. But,  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.

According to satellite data, the volcano was quiet 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_eng.php
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