By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow: The eruption of the Plosky Tolbachik volcano in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula will continue for at least two more weeks, a leading scientist said.
Gennady Karpov, deputy head of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology under the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the volcano is currently erupting with the same intensity as in the past few days, though its activity has slightly subsided as compared to the first days of eruption.
The 3,085-metre Plosky Tolbachik, part of a volcanic complex located 343 km from the region capital of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, erupted Nov 27 for the first time in 36 years.
The volcano has been spewing lava from two fissures along its southern slope, with the upper flow descending 6,000 metres and lower flow 17,000 metres.
The Plosky Tolbachik erupted 10 times since records began in 1740, with the most notable eruption in 1975, commonly known as The Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption.
The 1975 eruption dramatically changed the local landscape and became an ecological disaster as the volume of lava and ashes emitted by the Plosky Tolbachik was the largest in recorded history of Kamchatka.
During the Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption in 1975, the volcano spilled on average 40 cubic metres of magma per second while Dec 11 its productivity was about 400 cubic metres or 1,200 tonnes per second.