KVERT reported that during 3-10 January a newer lava dome continued to extrude onto the NW part of Shiveluch's older lava dome. Lava-dome extrusion was accompanied by hot avalanches, incandescence, and fumarolic activity. Moderate ash explosions generated ash plumes that rose to altitudes of 4-5 km (13,100-16,400) a.s.l. A thermal anomaly was detected daily in satellite images, and ash plumes drifted 360 km SW and 278 km WNW on 7 and 9 January, respectively. On 12 January strong explosions generated ash plumes that rose to altitudes of 7-8 km (23,000-26,200 ft) a.s.l. and drifted ESE. The next day a video camera recorded an ash plume from an explosion that again rose to altitudes of 7-8 km (23,000-26,200 ft) a.s.l. The ash plume drifted 50 km WSW. According to a news report minor amounts of ash fell in Klyuchi Village, 50 km SW. The Aviation Color Code remained at Orange.

Geological Summary. The high, isolated massif of Sheveluch volcano (also spelled Shiveluch) rises above the lowlands NNE of the Kliuchevskaya volcano group. The 1,300 km3 andesitic volcano is one of Kamchatka's largest and most active volcanic structures, with at least 60 large eruptions during the Holocene. The summit of roughly 65,000-year-old Stary Shiveluch is truncated by a broad 9-km-wide late-Pleistocene caldera breached to the south. Many lava domes occur on its outer flanks. The Molodoy Shiveluch lava dome complex was constructed during the Holocene within the large open caldera; Holocene lava dome extrusion also took place on the flanks of Stary Shiveluch. Widespread tephra layers from these eruptions have provided valuable time markers for dating volcanic events in Kamchatka. Frequent collapses of dome complexes, most recently in 1964, have produced debris avalanches whose deposits cover much of the floor of the breached caldera.

Sources: Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), RIA Novosti