The Krasheninnikov Volcano in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula erupted overnight for the first time in approximately 600 years, an event that may be linked to the powerful earthquake that struck the Russian Far East last week, according to Russia’s state news agency RIA and scientific sources on Sunday.
“This marks the first historically confirmed eruption of Krasheninnikov in six centuries,” said Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, as quoted by RIA.
Girina noted that the eruption might be related to Wednesday’s magnitude 7.5 earthquake, which triggered tsunami alerts across distant regions, including French Polynesia and Chile. The earthquake was also followed by an eruption of Klyuchevskoy, the most active volcano in the region.
Posting on the Telegram channel of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Girina added that Krasheninnikov’s last known lava flow occurred around the year 1463, with a margin of error of 40 years, and that no eruption had been documented since.
Following the recent eruption, Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations in Kamchatka reported an ash plume rising up to 6,000 meters (3.7 miles). The volcano itself stands at 1,856 meters in elevation.
“The ash cloud is drifting eastward toward the Pacific Ocean and currently poses no threat to populated areas,” the ministry said on its Telegram channel.
The eruption has been assigned an orange aviation alert, signaling a significant hazard to air traffic in the vicinity, according to the ministry.