Earthquake Triggers Volcano To Erupt For First Time In 600 Years

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A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Russia last week triggered the activity of seven volcanoes, including one that hadn’t erupted in 600 years. The 6,000-foot-tall Krasheninnikov volcano, which last erupted in 1550, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, blew a plume of ash over five miles into the sky. It was also the first time lava flow from the Krasheninnikov volcano has been recorded since 1463.

The megaquake, which hit Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, appears to have caused the Krasheninnikov volcano to erupt early Sunday morning. The ash cloud from the volcano led to an aviation red alert from Russia’s Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, which warned that “ash explosions up to 10 km (6.2 miles) a.s.l. could occur at any time.”

ABC News reports that the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) reported that this is the first time in almost 300 years that seven volcanoes have erupted at the same time in the region. Alexey Ozerov, the director of RAS, said it was an “extremely rare phenomenon that can be described as a parade of volcanic eruptions”

Another volcano, Klyuchevskoy, erupted within hours of the massive earthquake, which caused the southern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula to shift southeastward. A second earthquake hit the region on Sunday that measured 7.0. That quake led to a tsunami warning for the peninsula and other nearby regions that was later rescinded.

Did the earthquake really cause the volcano’s eruption?

The initial 8.8 magnitude earthquake was one of the top ten powerful earthquakes ever recorded and the most powerful earthquake in the world since 2011, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Kamchatka Peninsula contains a total of 29 active volcanoes. However, Harold Tobin, a professor of seismology and geohazards at the University of Washington and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, told NPR that the quake may or may not have been the actual cause of the volcanic eruptions.

“It is definitely an interesting coincidence… or not coincidence,” Tobin said. He added that the Krasheninnikov volcano may have already been close to erupting and the earthquake may have just shaken “loose the system that then allows it to actually erupt.”

“It wouldn’t have experienced really extreme shaking,” Tobin said. “Nonetheless, seismic waves that are passing through the earth are certainly affecting underground systems like potentially magma that’s in cracks in the rock inside a volcano.”