Russia volcano eruption
© YouTube/Пятый канал Новости (screen capture)
The eruption of the Bezymyanny volcano on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula began at 08:22 local time (23:22 Moscow time on Wednesday), a spokesman for the Kamchatka branch of the geophysical service of the Russian Academy of Sciences told TASS on Thursday.

"According to preliminary estimates, the volcano spewed ash to an altitude of ten kilometers. An autonomous video surveillance camera at the Kirishev station recorded the beginning of the eruption. Since the volcano is currently partially covered by clouds, more exact information about the eruption will be available when we receive data from satellites," the spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, the eruption began as was anticipated by the Kamchatka branch of the Russian expert council on earthquake prediction. The intensification of the giant mount's activity began in early October.

Bezymyanny is one of 29 active volcanoes of Kamchatka. Its height is about 2,800 metres above sea level. Its eruptions are explosive. They occur one or two times a year and may last from several hours to several days. In recent years scientists have managed to predict the periods of its activity intensification rather correctly. Its previous powerful eruption occurred on March 15, 2019.


The volcano's name means "nameless," and it was considered to be extinct before the 1955 eruption. Bezymyanny is located on the southeast slope of the extinct volcano Kamen. Its greatest eruption happened in 1956 and lowered the top of the mountain by 280 meters from 3,080 to 2,800 meters. The volcano is located in the central part of the Klyuchevskaya group 385 kilometres northeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The nearest populated localities are Klyuchi and Kozyrevsk.