Russians and volcanoes: always a wild party! The Kamchatka peninsula, sporting 29 active hot heads, is dealing with an eruption extravaganza. Three fiesty volcanoes (Karymsky, Shiveluch, and Zhupanovsky) woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to throw a tantrum, releasing ash into the sky.
Kamchatka’s already preparing for the rowdiest hangover; they expect airports to reschedule flights, and predict ashfall in the Avacha, Elizovsky, and Ust-Kamchatsky areas (guess that beach day’s canceled). Ironically, the only chilled out area right now seems to be the regional capital. Emergency workers and the army are gearing up for cleanup duty—don’t worry, they plan to give these volcanoes a stern talking-to, too.
With NASA dishing out fun facts like “highest concentrations of active volcanoes in the world,” it’s no wonder Kamchatka feels pressured to throw even bigger eruptions. Take 2015, for example, when Shiveluch made a bold move—sending ash all the way to Alaska. Who could forget the epic 2007 eruption, where an explosion shot ash up to 32,000 feet? Talk about a memorable night!
As if the volcanic afterparty wasn’t enough, there had to be an encore: a 4.2-magnitude earthquake rocked the peninsula on Wednesday. The US Geological Survey has the details, while Russian scientists chalk it up to bookending the April earthquake’s festivities. You just can’t make this stuff up.
