Kliuchevskoi, one of Eurasia´s highest volcanoes

Kliuchevskoi, the perfect volcano. Photo by Tamten (Wikimedia Commons).

The 4835-m high Kliuchevskoi (Klyuchevskoy) volcano is not only the highest in Eurasia, located in Central Kamchatka (Russia,  56.057°N, 160.638°E), but also one of the highest active with a large diversity of eruption styles. The beautifully symmetric basaltic to andibasaltic stratovolcano with about 80 lateral vents and cones is only 6000 to 7000 years old. Until 1988 numerous lateral flank eruptions ocurred, but since then eruption activity was constrained to the summit. Since her discovery 300 years ago the volcanic activity has increased frome once every 25 years to almost one incident per year in the last 30 years (typically VEI 1-2). The last of at least 10 large eruption (VEI 3-4) in historical time ocurred in October 1994, when an ash cloud rose 15 to 20 km into the sky. She is generally not much of a direct threat to people, the nearest settlement in the sparsely inhabited area is Klyuchi (30 km to the north from the volcano, Population: 5,726) harbouring the Klyuchi Volcano Observatory, but more to aviation due to the huge amounts of ash she is capable of erupting spreading to hundreds of kilometers distance.

From the KVERT webcam the line of sight to Kliuchevski´s summit unfortunately often is obscured by clouds, but they are beautiful to look at from the ISS.

This photo (facing NNE) of the central Kamchatka volcanoes was taken from the ISS. In the center we see the erupting Bezymianny volcano, above it is Kamen and Kliuchevskoi, the large volcanic massif of Ushkovsky lies to the left. Zimina and Udina just glimpse through the cloud deck and Tolbachik stands out prominently at the bottom. Courtesy of NASA (http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-33/html/iss033e018010.html).

GVP reports that the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) detected moderate seismic activity at
Kliuchevskloi during 16-23 August. A video camera recorded incandescence from the summit at night and gas-and-steam plumes containing minor amounts of ash rising to an altitude of 5.5 km. It was enough to give the previously pristine white cone a black cap:

Webcam picture from 26 Aug 2013. Courtesy of EMSD http://data.emsd.iks.ru/videokry/kly.jpg

Tom Pfeiffer compiled this time-lapse of an eruption on the evening of 26 Aug 2013:

Because the volcano is exhibiting signs of elevated unrest above known background level the current aviation color code remains at yellow. As of now there are no recent reports from the Tokyo VAAC, but KVERT reports an increased amplitude of volcanic tremor (6.9 mcm/s). A lava flow continued to effuse on the south-western volcanic flank on August 28 and strombolian activity of the summit crater of the volcano was observed (http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current_eng.php).

chryphia

Other sources:
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klyuchevskaya_Sopka

List of largest eruptions of the 20th century: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_large_volcanic_eruptions_of_the_20th_century

Kliuchevskoi on Volcano World: http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/kliuchevskoi

Chronology of Kliuchevskoi, Rose and Ramsey, 2009: http://www.pitt.edu/~mramsey/papers/RoseandRamsey2009.pdf

Belousov, Behnke and Belousov, 2011, “Generation of pyroclastic flows by explosive interaction of lava flows with ice/water-saturated substrate”, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

Update: Due to slipshod research I deprived Mt. Elbrus (5633 m, last known eruption 50 AD), Mt. Damavand (5670 m, last known eruption 5350 BC) and Mt. Ararat (5165 m, last known eruption 1840 AD) of their right as the three highest volcanoes of Eurasia (data from GVP). Sorry, no offence meant! I changed the title accordingly from “Eurasia´s highest volcano” to “one of Eurasia´s highest volcanoes”. Thanks to Renato Rio, Granyia and Milord P for fact checking! chryphia