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Russia’s Bezymianny volcano quiets down, after violent eruption

The fierce eruption of the Bezymianny volcano in Russia’s Kamchatka region has ended

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The fierce eruption of the Bezymianny volcano in Russia’s Kamchatka region, which began overnight into Monday, has ended, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) told TASS on Tuesday.

According to media reports, in the early hours of January 21, volcanologists recorded a powerful explosive flare-up of Kamchatka’s Bezymianny volcano, which had been inactive for a year. A cloud of volcanic ash reached as far as the Magadan Region, but the regional government said, citing meteorologists, that local residents were not in any danger.

"The aviation color code has been brought down from orange to yellow since the danger has diminished… because the eruption, which began overnight into Monday, …has ended," KVERT said. "According to seismic data, the active explosive phase lasted two hours, as ash clouds continued moving northwest for about 12 hours," a team member added.

The eruption seems to have cleared the pipe and brought fresh magma to the surface, so now lava is being squeezed out, KVERT said. "It will probably go on like this for several months, then the volcano will go silent once again and after that a new explosive eruption may occur. We have been monitoring this activity for quite a long time, since 1977," the KVERT member noted.

The 2,882 meter-high Bezymianny Volcano is located 40 kilometers from the Klyuchi settlement in the Ust-Kamchatsky District. It last erupted on December 10, 2017, when it spewed ash some 15 kilometers high.