Info,JAKARTA – SixMountainA volcano in Eastern Russia is reported to have erupted following an 8.8-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks that shook the region last week.
According to livescience, Klyuchevskaya volcano was the first to erupt on July 30.
This mountain had shown signs of activity before the earthquake, and experts concluded that the earthquake may have intensified the eruption but did not trigger it.
However, it is difficult to determine the exact impact of the earthquake on the volcano. Eruptions of nearby volcanoes, namely Shiveluch, Bezymianny, Karymsky, Avachinsky, and Krasheninnikov, soon followed and continue to this day.
All of these volcanoes are located in the Ring of Fire, a geological feature known for its volcanic and seismic activity.
The area around these volcanic mountain ranges, called the Kamchatka Peninsula, is sparsely populated, so it seems there is no active threat to the local population. However, eruptions can pose a risk to aircraft if they fly through ash clouds, said Harold Tobin, as reported by Live Science.
Although there have been a series of recent eruptions, experts say this kind of volcanic activity is not unusual. “About 40 to 50 active volcanoes erupt around the world at any given time. It’s no different now,” said Tobin. “Kamchatka is a very volcanically active region.”
There is no clear or single way in which an earthquake can cause a volcanic eruption, but both events can occur simultaneously in a subduction zone, an area where one tectonic plate dives beneath another.
The largest earthquake ever recorded was a 9.5-magnitude earthquake that struck Valdivia, Chile, in 1960, followed by several volcanic eruptions.
“Such an earthquake changed the pressure in the Earth’s crust, which may have made it easier for magma to rise to the surface,” said Segall. Ground shaking caused by the earthquake may also have contributed to the eruption by altering the movement of magma beneath the Earth’s surface.
These two mechanisms may play a role in the eruptions in Chile, but it is still too early to characterize the recent Russian event, said Segall.
Klyuchevskoy had shown signs of activity before the earthquake, but “its strength is likely to increase, including some ash emissions,” said a representative from the U.S. Geological Survey to Live Science on July 30.
The most prominent aspect of this series of events is the Krasheninnikov eruption, the first in about 500 years. “It could be a very strong coincidence or the magma system could have been disturbed by strong seismic waves and triggered the eruption,” explained Tobin. “It is very difficult to determine which one is correct for a specific eruption.”
In addition, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry for the Kamchatka region reported increased thermal activity at the seventh volcano near it, Mutnovsky. Satellite images revealed thermal anomalies at the volcano, which has not erupted yet, but scientists say they cannot predict whether or not the volcano will erupt or when.