Volcano in Russia erupts for the first time in centuries

A volcano on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula erupted overnight into Sunday for the first time in at least 400 years.

The Krasheninnikov volcano sent ash more than 3.7 miles into the sky, according to staff at the Kronotsky Reserve, where the volcano is located. The eruption came just days after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit in the region, causing tsunami waves in Japan and Alaska and prompting warnings for Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south toward New Zealand.

Images released by state media showed dense clouds of ash rising above the volcano.

“The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,” Kamchatka’s emergencies ministry wrote on Telegram during the eruption.

The eruption was accompanied by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and prompted a tsunami warning for three areas of Kamchatka. The tsunami warning was later lifted by Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services.

“This is the first historically confirmed eruption of the Krasheninnikov volcano in 600 years,” Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

On the Telegram channel of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Girina said that Krasheninnikov’s last lava effusion took place within 40 years of 1463. Reuters reported.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, based in the U.S., however, lists Krasheninnikov’s last eruption as occurring 475 years ago in 1550.

The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.

The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team said late Sunday that the volcano’s activity was decreasing but that “moderate explosive activity” could continue.