Kamchatka volcano blows its top

Klyuchevskoy (pronounced Kloo-shef-skoy), a stratovolcano located in the north central region of the Kamchatka Peninsula, is blasting ash up to 32,000 feet in the air, and has diverted air traffic headed toward the Far East. This is the largest eruption to occur in the North Pacific in a decade, and is providing students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks a unique opportunity to collaborate with scientists, as well as state and federal agencies.

Tracking the Klyuchevskoy eruption locally are a handful students and faculty from the Geophysical Institute and the Alaska Volcano Observatory (GI/AVO) who process data used to reroute air traffic around dangerous volcanic ash clouds. Information is collected by satellite, Web cam, and Puff, a three-dimensional volcanic ash computer model. Once these data are synthesized, they are then shared at large to ensure the safety of thousands of people living in, or flying through the North Pacific.

Klyuchevskoy’s been erupting since January, but the largest explosions in the eruption began June 28, 2007. These explosions created a 1,360-mile-long band of ash, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Aleutian Islands, clogging well-used air routes with volcanic ash that prove deadly for aircraft.

“It’s best for us to keep an eye on Klyuchevskoy,” said Ken Dean, a professor of geology specializing in remote sensing with the Geophysical Institute and the Alaska Volcano Observatory. “Any ash that travels to Alaska is drifting right through the superhighway of air travel to the Far East. It’s critical for us to understand how distal plumes are moving.”

The eruption of one volcano will have far-reaching affects. Although Klyuchevskoy is located in Kamchatka, its ash crossed the Bering Sea and reached Unimak Island in the Aleutians within one day. Volcanic ash moves quickly through the atmosphere, so it’s important for scientists to have up-to-date information at their fingertips to generate a response plan.

Twice a day, the GI/AVO team goes through a rigorous process to examine the current condition of the more than 150 active volcanoes in the North Pacific. In addition, faculty is on call 24-hours a day to respond to large events like the recent explosions from Klyuchevskoy to guarantee information is shared and public safety is addressed.

Source: University of Alaska Fairbanks

Related stories:

Alaskan volcano sends ash plume high
Alaska's Augustine Volcano erupted again Tuesday for about five minutes, sending a plume of ash nine miles into the air.
Fires Burning Near Big Sur, California
Fires near Big Sur, Calif., continued to burn unchecked when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image on Sunday, June 29.
Foot-dragging Mars rover finds Yellowstone-like hot spring deposits
Deposits of nearly pure silica discovered by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in Gusev Crater formed when volcanic steam or hot water (or maybe both) percolated through the ground. Such deposits are found around hydrothermal vents like those in Yellowstone National Park. That's the conclusion of planetary scientists working with data collected by the rover's Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES), developed at Arizona State University.
Chilean volcano captured blasting ash
Chile’s Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke (centre left of image) into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina’s Patagonia Plateau in this Envisat image acquired on 5 May 2008.
Chile's Chaiten volcano one of scores of active volcanoes in region
The Chaiten volcano now erupting in southern Chile is one of 200 to 300 volcanoes in the "Andean Arc" region of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia considered active by volcanologists, some of which lie in much more densely populated areas, said a University of Colorado at Boulder geologist who has studied Chaiten.
Study: Mountains reached current elevation earlier than thought
Geologists studying deposits of volcanic glass in the western United States have found that the central Sierra Nevada largely attained its present elevation 12 million years ago, roughly 8 or 9 million years earlier than commonly thought.
First evidence of under-ice volcanic eruption in Antarctica
The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica’s most rapidly changing ice sheet is reported this week in the journal Nature Geosciences. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet erupted 2000 years ago (325BC) and remains active.
Strange Space Weather over Africa
Something strange is happening in the atmosphere above Africa and researchers have converged on Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the phenomenon. The Africa Space Weather Workshop kicked off Nov. 12th with nearly 100 scientists and students in attendance.

News discussion:

Space & Earth science news