On the night of July 31, the Klyuchevskoy volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula began erupting with intense force, according to reports from the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Preliminary data indicates that scorching lava is flowing down the volcano’s western slope. A powerful glow is visible above the crater, accompanied by explosive sounds. Scientists report that the eruption has been ongoing since April 20. "A 200-meter-deep crater had been gradually filling with lava, and now the lava flow has begun spilling onto the western slope," they explained.

Earlier, on July 30, after a period of sluggish activity, the giant volcano sent an ash plume soaring up to 6 kilometers into the sky. Alexey Ozerov, director of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology at the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, suggested that the eruption may have been triggered by a powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Kamchatka’s coast, which "agitated" the volcano.

Photo: volkstat.ru (archive)