Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 09-08
Thursday, February 28, 2008, 22:50 UTC (Friday, February 29, 10:50 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.

Seismicity was slightly above background levels but seismic activity slightly increased last week. There were a small increase of a number and a magnitude of shallow volcanic earthquakes, and a duration of volcanic tremor. According to seismic data, ash plumes up to 5.6 km (18,400 ft) ASL possibly occurred at the volcano on February 24-26. According to video-data, a strong fumarolic activity of the volcano was observing on February 21-22 and a weak - on February 24-25. There were small hot avalanches all week. Clouds obscured the volcano in the others days. According to satellite data, a big thermal anomaly was noting over the lava dome 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 not exceed background levels all week. According to visual and video data, a moderate fumarolic activity was observed at the lava dome on February 21-22 and 24-25. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days. According to satellite data, the weak thermal anomaly over the lava dome was observing on February 22 and 24.

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 or obscured by clouds.


IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR  CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT:

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

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

Christina Neal, Scientist-in-Charge, AVO
E-mail: tneal@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