Six Russian volcanoes erupted shortly after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks struck nearby, with a seventh possibly to follow.
Klyuchevskaya erupted first, on July 30. It had already shown signs of unrest before the earthquake, and experts deduced that the quake likely intensified the eruption but didn't trigger it. However, it's difficult to know the exact effect of the earthquake on the volcano. Eruptions of nearby volcanoes Shiveluch, Bezymianny, Karymsky, Avachinsky and Krasheninnikov soon followed and continue through today.
All of the volcanoes sit on the Ring of Fire, a geological feature notorious for volcanic and seismic activity.
The area around this parade of erupting volcanoes, called the Kamchatka Peninsula, is sparsely populated, so there doesn't seem to be an active threat to local communities. However, the eruptions could pose a risk to planes if they were to fly through ash plumes, Harold Tobin, a seismologist at the University of Washington, told Live Science in an email.
Despite the recent spate of eruptions, experts say this kind of volcanic activity is not out of the ordinary. "About 40 to 50 volcanoes are actively erupting around the world at any given time. Right now is no different," Tobin said. "Kamchatka is a very volcanically active region."
Were the eruptions caused by the earthquake?
There is no clear or singular way an earthquake can cause volcanic eruptions, but these two events can co-occur at subduction zones, areas where one tectonic plate dives beneath another.
https://www.sott.net/article/501098-A-parade-of-volcanoes-is-erupting-in-Russia-following-an-8-8-earthquake