Kamchatkan volcano erupts

A volcano has woken up on Kamchatka, a peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk.

A powerful explosion shook the Klyuchevsky Volcano at 3:09 Moscow time on Monday, reported the Active Volcanism Laboratory of the Institute of Volcanology of the Far Eastern Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The explosion was preceded by a series of earth tremors. Afterwards, specialists registered ash and gas activity inside the crater. A cloud of ash, 10-15 kilometres long, is being carried southwestwards by the wind.

Volcanologists regard the explosion and the following activity as the beginning of a new cycle of eruption. The volcano has been dormant since October 1st, 1994.