A massive earthquake in Russia has put over 100 volcanoes across Russia, Japan, Philippines and Indonesia at increased risk of eruption.
The 8.8 magnitude earthquake, which prompted Tsunami warnings, has produced enough energy to trigger volcanic eruptions across the Pacific’s Ring of Fire.
The Pacific’s Ring of Fire is a chain of seismologically and geologically active regions that encircle the Pacific Ocean, where many of the world’s biggest earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis occur.
According to the Daily Mail, experts have warned that the sixth largest quake in recorded history has:
- Disturbed underground pressure systems far from the epicenter
- Potentially destabilised magma chambers beneath active volcanoes along the arc
The earthquake struck Russia’s Kamchatska peninsula and volcanoes there are most likely to respond with Klyuchevskoy erupting just after the strongest strike on the entire planet in 14 years.
According to Michael Manga, a geoscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, “The volcanoes in the volcanic arcs, including Chile, the US Cascades, Japan, Indonesia and Kamachatka, are prone to erupt after earthquakes.”
He added that the tremors have raised eruption chances from 5 per cent to 12 per cent.
The intense tremors shook Russia on Wednesday, July 30, and several aftershocks have been recorded since then, as per U.S. Geological Survey.
How do earthquakes cause volcano eruptions?
Seismic waves, massive bursts of energy released by shifting tectonic plates, travel through the Earth’s crust
These waves increase stress within magma chambers which can weaken the rocks surrounding the magma reservoir opening new pathways for magma to rise.