A long-dormant volcano erupted in far eastern Kamchatka, Russia, on August 3, 2025, just days after one of the strongest earthquakes on record struck the region
The giant volcano exploded for the first time in more than 600 years in the far eastern region, located at the Kronotsky Nature Reserve.
According to SAN, the ash and gas emissions got as high as 3.7 miles as the plume spread east towards the Pacific Ocean.
As reported by theAssociated Press News,a 7.0 magnitude earthquake accompanied the eruption, prompting a tsunami warning.
These warnings came days after the far east regions of Russia got hit by the major earthquake with 8.8 magnitude on July 30, 2025.
According to the Smithsonian Institution’s, Global Volcanism Program (GVP), visuals released from Russian state media show a towering plume spewing from the Krashninnikov volcano which last erupted in 1550.
The Silent giant situated in the volcanic sites spewed huge ash clouds into the sky in an eruption that was confirmed after a hundred years of slumber or inactivity, giving the region a geologically epic moment.
The ash plume from the volcano rose to 6,000 metres into the sky and then moved towards the Pacific Ocean.
The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), called it "Historic".
Head of KVERT RIA Novosti said, “This is the first historically confirmed eruption of the krashninnikov volcano in 600 years”
According to Kamchatka’s Emergency Ministry, “The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano towards the Pacific Ocean, there are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities.”
KVERT reported that the volcanic activity was decreasing but the moderate explosive activity could continue.
Moreover, aviation authorities had issued an "Orange Alert" for potential flight disruptions in the region due to safety measures.
Volcanoes are commonly defined as the vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows the hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface of the Earth.
A volcano needs a reservoir of molten magma in a chamber to allow magma to rise through the crust and escape above the Earth's surface as molten lava.
According to volcanologists or geologists, volcanoes are mainly composed of three types: Active, Dormant, or Extinct.
The dormant volcanoes are known as sleeping giants because of their inactive nature.
Dormant volcanos can take decades, hundreds or thousands of years to erupt again.Even some of the dormant volcanoes have not erupted in the last 10,000 years, which marks the end of the ice-age era and the beginning of the Holocene Epoch.
Volcano becomes dormant because the magma of the Earth’s mantle can no longer reach the volcano.
Another possible reason could be that the Earth plates are constantly shifting above the volcanic hotspots.
The tectonic plates continue to shift and eventually the volcano shuts off from the magma chamber beneath.
One of the most dormant volcanoes in the world is Mount Kilimanjaro. One of its three peaks, Kibo has not erupted in the past 360,000 years and its other two peaks are extinct.