KAMCHATKA VOLCANO SPEWS LAVA

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PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, JANUARY 29, 2004, /RIA-NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT OKSANA GUSEVA/ -- Fresh lava continues to flow out of the Karymsky volcano's crater; this volcano is located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.

Talking to RIA-NOVOSTI here today, Alexei Ozerov, a senior research associate with the Volcanology Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences), noted that the 1,500-meter long and 100-meter wide lava flow was descending along the volcano's southern slope. This lava flow is also 25 meters high.

According to Ozerov, the Karymsky volcano is renowned for its extremely viscous lava flows, which move at a speed of about 10 meters every 24 hours.

Previously, lava flowed along the volcano's slopes in 2002.

Experts continue to register substantial volcanic activity in that area; the volcano's crater keeps spewing volcanic ashes at 4-5-minute intervals. Ash clouds already measure 40 to 50 km in length.

The 1,500-meter Karymsky volcano had erupted January 2, 1996; two volcanic centers, i.e. the top crater, as well as the bottom of lake Karymskoye (that is located six km from the volcano), spewed out red-hot volcanic material.

An eruption in lake Karymskoye's northern sector lasted about 24 consecutive hours; approximately 200 explosions were registered over that period, with a 0.7 square-kilometer peninsula emerging all the same. That area was subsequently named as the Novogodny (New Year's Eve) peninsula. All local life forms, including a rare fish species, were killed as a result of that eruption. Lake Karymskoye doesn't yet sustain life at this stage.

The Karymsky volcano, which is located 125 km north from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, doesn't threaten the Kamchatka Peninsula's populated localities in any way.

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