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Russian Pompeii? Kamchatka Volcano May BURY Vast Lands Under ASH, Scientists Say

© Photo : Pixabay/PexelsAsh cloud in a volcano eruption
Ash cloud in a volcano eruption - Sputnik International
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The Siberian seismic tomography laboratory predicted that tons of ash could be potentially belched out of Bolshaya Udina on Russian Kamchatka some time in the foreseeable future given the number of earthquakes the highly sensitive controllers have registered since they were installed atop the gigantic rock in 2018.

Bolshaya Udina, which was earlier deemed to be dormant, may experience an overwhelming eruption, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences’ edition “Science in Siberia” citing an abstract in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.

The scientists assume that Bolshaya Udina may repeat the fate of the neighbouring volcano Bezimyanny (Unnamed), which was not viewed upon as a separate active volcano, but unexpectedly suffered a massive blast in 1956.

“When a volcano is silent for a lengthy period of time, its first explosion may yield horrific consequences. Vast amounts of ash are spewed into the air, spreading over large swathes of land all over the planet,” noted Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Sciences Ivan Kulakov, the head of the seismic tomography laboratory at the Novosibirsk-based Trophimuk Insitute of oil and gas geology and geophysics.

Scientific data reveals that Bolshaya Udina started to showcase a certain seismic activity in the autumn 2017, with the underground punches having since been occurring more and more frequently.

In February 2019, a massive quake with an estimated magnitude of 4.3 was registered on the volcano – the biggest in this part of the Klyuchevskaya group over the observation period.

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Kulakov argues that if an eruption occurs in the area it will have massive repercussions and “would be quite a thing.” As many as four seismic stations were placed on the volcano in spring 2018 to evaluate how active the giant is where the epicentre of its activity lies.

The equipment “listened out” to the rock from May to July 2018, registering 559 earthquakes on Bolshaya Udina, which led the researchers to effectively cross out the volcano from the list of the dead volcanoes, since statistics suggest about 60 percent of volcanoes that start to demonstrate such level of activity erupt.

READ MORE: S-400 Missile Systems Tested in Kamchatka

With the question of whether the volcano will spew lava masses some time soon remaining open, new additional stations are planned to encircle the site, which will be capable of detecting indicators of even minute seismic movements, to prevent what happened to the ill-fated ancient Roman city of Pompeii that was buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Bolshaya Udina is one of the southernmost volcanoes in the famed Klyuchevskaya group in central Kamchatka, which is dominated by the active volcanoes like Klyuchevskoy, Plosky Tolbachik and etc. The 2923-metre volcanic rock is a regular-shaped, heavily dissected cone featuring a 400-metre crater on its top, which is made of a glacier.

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