Kambalny Volcano Erupts for the First Time in Almost 250 Years

Caitlin Dempsey

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Minor update:

A map showing a dark red area measuring heat from an erupting volcano in Far East Russia.

Kambalny Volcano is a  stratovolcano with a summit height of 7071.68 ft (2156 m) which is located in the southern part of Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia (N 51 deg 18 min E 156 deg 52 min).  While the Kamchatka Peninsula has the highest concentration of active volcanoes on Earth, until recently the volcano had been dormant, with the last recorded eruption happening in 1769, 248 years ago.

On March 24, 2017, the volcano erupted and evidence of the eruption was captured by multiple satellites shortly after.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the ash plume from the volcano on March 25th.  The day after the eruption, the ash plume had extended 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the southwest.

Satellite image from NASA’s Terra satellite of the ash plume from Kambalny Volcano on March 25, 2017. Image: NASA.
Satellite image from NASA’s Terra satellite of the ash plume from Kambalny Volcano on March 25, 2017. Image: NASA.

On March 26th, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument  on NASA’s Aura satellite recorded an airborne plume of sulfur dioxide (SO2).

A map showing a dark red area measuring heat from an erupting volcano in Far East Russia.

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Caitlin Dempsey

Caitlin Dempsey is a geographer, writer, and founder and editor of Geography Realm. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Geography from UCLA and a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from San José State University.

For more than two decades, she has written about geography, maps, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, satellite imagery, and environmental science. Her work focuses on making geography accessible to a broad audience through articles, tutorials, and educational resources.

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