KVERT will work the usual from May 01 till June 30, 2010.

Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 23-10
Monday, May 24, 2010, 02:20 UTC (14:20 KDT)

SUMMARY OF AVIATION COLOR CODES:

KAMCHATKA:
BEZYMIANNY, SHEVELUCH, KLYUCHEVSKOY and KARYMSKY: ORANGE

TOLBACHIK PLOSKY, KORYAKSKY, AVACHINSKY, GORELY, MUTNOVSKY and KIZIMEN: GREEN

NORTHERN KURILES:
ALAID: YELLOW
EBEKO and CHIKURACHKI: GREEN

CURRENT CHANGES IN AVIATION COLOR CODE:

KAMCHATKA:
AVIATION COLOR CODE OF BEZYMIANNY: ORANGE

NORTHERN KURILES:
AVIATION COLOR CODE OF ALAID IS YELLOW

BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO: 55°58'N, 160°36'E; Elevation 2,895 m
CURRENT AVIATION COLOR CODE IS
ORANGE
PREVIOUS AVIATION COLOR CODE WAS
YELLOW

Activity of the volcano gradually increased. Possibly a new explosive eruption of the volcano is preparing. The activity of the volcano could affect international and low-flying aircraft.

Strong volcanic activity of Klyuchevskoy volcano obscured seismic data of Bezymianny but separate seismic signals in the area of the dome were registering last two days. Moderate fumarolic activity of the volcano was observed on May 21. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days. According to satellite data, a temperature of thermal anomaly over the lava dome continues to increasing from 18 degrees of Celsius on May 19, to 48.8 degrees of Celsius on May 23.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/bzm/index.html

ALAID VOLCANO: 50°52'N, 155°34'E; Elevation 2,339 m
CURRENT AVIATION COLOR CODE IS
YELLOW
PREVIOUS AVIATION COLOR CODE WAS GREEN


Possibly activity of the volcano increased. Possibly a new explosive eruption of the volcano began to preparing. Ash explosions up to 10-15 km (>32,800-49,200 ft) ASL is typical for this volcano. The activity of the volcano could affect international and low-flying aircraft.

Alaid volcano is not monitored with seismic instruments - seismic station at the volcano is not working long time by technical reasons. KVERT has satellite monitoring and occasional visual messages about this volcano.

According to satellite data, a gas-steam plume about 11 km (6.8 mi) extending to the east-southeast from the volcano was noted on May 23, 2010 (NOAA-15, 19:23 UTC).

The volcano-Island, the most northern in the Kurile archipelago, is situated at a distance 30 km north-west from Paramushir and 70 km south-west from Kamchatka. The stratovolcano belongs to the Somma-Vesuvius type. The central scoria cone with the height of 250 m is situated inside summit crater. There are 33 lateral cones on the flanks of the volcano.

Last strong explosive eruption from the summit crater with vulcanian, vulcano-strombolian and subplinian types of activity occurred in 1981.

Alaid exposes high potential hazard to the aircrafts flying over Kamchatka and the Northern Kuriles because its eruptive clouds can rise to a height of 10-15 km above the crater and extend for hundreds of kilometers (up to 1500 km) and the duration of eruptions can exceed a few months.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/volcanoes/Alaid/index_eng.html


KLYUCHEVSKOY VOLCANO; 56° 03'N, 160° 39'E; Elevation 4,750  m
AVIATION COLOR CODE IS ORANGE

Explosive-effusive eruption of the volcano continues. Ash explosions > 7.0 km (> 23,000 ft) ASL could occur at any time. The activity of the volcano could affect international and low-flying aircraft.

Seismicity of the volcano was above background levels all week. According to visual data, Strombolian activity of the volcano continues. Moderate gas-steam activity with bursts of small amount of ash was observing on May 13-18. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days of week. According to satellite data, a big thermal anomaly was registering over the volcano all week. Ash plumes extending from 20 till 145 km (12-90 mi) to the eastern directions from the volcano were noted on May 14-15 and 17-19.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/klch/index.html

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


Explosive-extrusive eruption of the volcano continues. Ash  explosions > 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 above background levels all week. According to seismic data, possibly ash plumes rose up to 5.1 km (16,700 ft) ASL all week. According to visual data, moderate fumarolic activity was observed on May 15-17. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days of week. According to satellite data, a big thermal anomaly was registering over the lava dome all week. An ash plume extending ~40 km (25 mi) to the south-east from the dome was noted on May 15, and gas-steam plumes extending about 40 km (25 mi) to the north-east from the volcano - on May 18.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/shv/index.html

KARYMSKY VOLCANO: 54°03'N, 159°27'E; Elevation 1,486 m
AVIATION COLOR CODE IS ORANGE


Explosive activity of the volcano continues. Ash explosions > 6.0 km (> 19,700 ft) ASL could occur at any time. Aactivity of the volcano could affect low-flying aircraft.

Seismic activity of the volcano was above background levels all week. According to seismic data, possibly ash plumes rose up to 2.5 km (8,200 ft) ASL all week. According to satellite data, a thermal anomaly was registering over the volcano on May 13-17 and 19-20. An ash plume extending about 18 km to the north-east was noted on May 17.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/krm/index.html

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT:

Dr. Olga Girina, KVERT Project, IVS FED RAS
E-mail: girina@kscnet.ru
Tel. (415) 229 7890

Svetlana Toloknova, KVERT Project, KB GS RAS
E-mail: ssl@emsd.ru
Tel. (415) 229 8053

Chris Waythomas, KVERT Project, Acting Scientist-in-Charge, USGS
E-mail: chris@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