On July 29, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, a magnitude 8.8 beast, rattled the Kamchatka Peninsula region of Russia. The quake was powerful enough to possibly trigger a cascade of volcanic eruptions—seven, to be exact.
Or so some scientists believe. There’s some debate about that.
Seven volcanoes, including some that hadn’t erupted in centuries, suddenly woke up and started firing. The volcanic chain reaction kicked off on July 30 with Klyuchevskaya, one of Earth’s tallest volcanoes. It had already been rumbling, so scientists think the earthquake didn’t cause the eruption outright but may have given it a little nudge.
Lava began pouring down its slopes, explosions rocked the summit, and a “powerful glow” lit up the sky, according to Russia’s Geophysical Service. And then the other ones popped off. One by one, volcanoes across the region began to erupt.
Russia’s Massive Earthquake May Have Triggered 7 Volcanoes
Krasheninnikov was among them, who hadn’t erupted since the 15th century, right around the time the printing press was considered cutting-edge technology. It blasted an ash plume six kilometers into the sky.
Scientists are still debating how much blame the quake deserves, arguing that it’s difficult to determine whether this is cause and effect or just a seismic coincidence. On top of all of that, another magnitude 7.0 quake hit soon after Krasheninnikov erupted, further complicating the debate.
The Kamchatka Peninsula’s location on the Ring of Fire makes it ground zero for seismic and volcanic activity. Simple logic dictates that a mega earthquake unleashed a series of small volcanic eruptions, but geology isn’t as cut and dry as it seems on the surface.
As always, the answers lie deep beneath our feet.
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