. Earth Science News .
'Powerful' volcano eruption in Russia's far east
MOSCOW, May 9 (AFP) May 09, 2006
A volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula in far eastern Russia erupted Tuesday in a powerful explosion that spewed smoke and ash up to 15 kilometers (nine miles) into the air and sent red-hot lava flowing down the volcano's slopes, news agencies reported.

The eruption posed no immediate danger to populated areas on the remote peninsula but aircraft were advised to skirt far around the vicinity while authorities said tourists and hunters should not approach any closer than 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the volcano, ITAR-TASS said.

A massive cloud from the eruption was blowing east over the Pacific Ocean at an altitude of around eight kilometers (five miles) and had already spread over a distance of up to 700 kilometers (435 miles), the agency said, quoting experts at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The volcano, known by the name of No Name, sits amid a group of 28 volcanos in the central portion of the Kamchatka peninsula and is the most active among them, erupting once or twice a year on average, RIA Novosti said.

Ash from an eruption from the No Name volcano in 2004 was detected in the US Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska.

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