Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 24-10
Thursday, May 27, 2010, 23:00 UTC (Friday, May 28, 11:00 KDT)

SUMMARY OF AVIATION COLOR CODES:

KAMCHATKA:
BEZYMIANNY, SHEVELUCH, KLYUCHEVSKOY and KARYMSKY: ORANGE

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

NORTHERN KURILES:
EBEKO, CHIKURACHKI and ALAID: GREEN

CURRENT CHANGES IN AVIATION COLOR CODE:
NORTHERN KURILES:
AVIATION COLOR CODE OF ALAID IS GREEN

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

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. The volcano was quiet in the other days of week. There was no data about increasing activity of this volcano by observers from Paramushir Island.
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 all week. Ash columns rose up to 5.5 km (18,000 ft) ASL on May 23-26. According to satellite data, a big thermal anomaly was registering over the volcano all week. Ash plumes extending about 185 km (115 mi) to the different directions from the volcano were noted on May 24 and 26.
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 4.7 km (15,400 ft) ASL all week. According to visual data, ash plumes rose up to 4.5 km (14,800 ft) ASL on May 24-25, moderate fumarolic activity was observed all week. According to satellite data, a big thermal anomaly was registering over the lava dome all week. An ash plume extending ~10 km (6 mi) to the north-east from the dome was noted on May 23.
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 3 km (9,800 ft) ASL all week. According to satellite data, a thermal anomaly was registering over the volcano all week. Ash plumes extending about 63 km to the south and west from the volcano were noted on May 24-26.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/krm/index.html

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


Possibly an explosive eruption of the volcano. Activity of the volcano could affect low-flying aircraft.

Strong volcanic activity of Klyuchevskoy volcano obscured seismic data of Bezymianny last week but there were several shallow events registered on May 21 and 24. Moderate fumarolic activity of the volcano was observed on May 24-27. Clouds obscured the volcano in the other days. According to satellite data, a thermal anomaly over the lava dome was registering all week. A temperature of thermal anomaly and its size sometimes increased.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/bzm/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. (4152) 29-78-90

Svetlana Toloknova, KVERT Project, KB GS RAS
E-mail: ssl@emsd.ru
Tel. (4152) 29-80-53

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