PAUL… or AVACHINSKAYA SOPKA, Kamchatka

The Southwest side of Avachinsky Volcano 09/2014 (© kuhnmi via Wikimedia)

Although I have known that the Avachinsky is one of the more active volcanoes in Kamchatka, somehow I habitually tended to skip it when checking webcams and reports for new activity in Kamchatka – I saw forever this owl face, this snow-covered, never-changing mountain… That has changed since I came across this wonderful diary by a 19th century German-Baltic geologist and explorer, K. v. Ditmar. He had lived and worked 1851-55 in Petropavlovsk, at the foot of two magnificent volcanoes. Although he didn’t manage to get to the crater – bad weather, strong gas emissions and superstitious company made him abandon two attempts – he loved volcanoes!

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A PRECIOUS VOLCANO – KUDRYAVIY (KURIL ISLANDS)

Medvezhia volcanic complex (© kkv1970, via Wikimapia)

Sometimes I browse satellite images on WorldView to see what “my” volcanoes are up to. The other day I noticed a thermal anomaly on “Medvezhia”, Iturup Island, Kuriles. So I went back to look at every day of May and found that a red spot had shown on eight days in May, sometimes two spots, practically on most days the mountain wasn’t covered in thick clouds. Could that be a glowing hot lava dome, degassing, with an eruption to come, or a small one going on already?

Ongoing eruptions at Ebeko, Kuril Islands

January 2017 steam emissions from Ebeko