A close encounter with Kamchatka’s Shiveluch volcano.

Easter Island – done and dusted. But I’ve still got more tales from the Kamchatkan side to tell – including this one about… a volcano; fancy that?!

After a miserable first few days in Kamchatka – miserable due to the incessant rain spoiling our plans – the weather finally came to its senses to give us a bit of sunshine. Naturally, we tried to catch up on what we’d missed – the places we hadn’t managed to see yet. And first on the list was the most significant (constantly active!) of the northern volcanos – Shiveluch. And here it is in all its glory:

Shiveluch is one of the most active volcanoes in Kamchatka. It doesn’t just erupt at regular intervals – sometimes it does so with real force. There’ve even been cases where, after one of its eruptions, the airspace over Alaska (!) was closed – which is, believe it or not, more than two thousand kilometers away!

Yes – this is a beast of a volcano. And of course – that makes it a mandatory must-see. Flying over it has been on my Kamchatka to-do list for a while. Last year we’d planned doing so, but our plans were ruined by three things in a row: first – military exercises in the region; second – bad weather (really?!); and third – a nearby volcano, which erupted and covered everything over hundreds of square kilometers with ash, and flying in that is extremely dangerous.

Alas, the weather put paid to our plans this year too; luckily – only for a while. Then, finally, on one of the days, we got good news: the forecast was excellent; time to fly! So off we choppered…

The farther north we flew, the sunnier it got, the brighter the colors, and the clearer the views in every direction! Then: Shiveluch – approaching! ->

// By the way, I think this was the first time I uploaded a blogpost (this one – weeks later) from a plane. Yep – using in-flight internet, no less. Hmm, but there’s a risk with that… But not– I’d rather not even think about it.

So, where was I? Ah, yes: approaching Shiveluch…

The structure of this volcano is very complex. It’s so active that it keeps building up its cone, only to later destroy it – over and over again.

When I say “complex”, I mean it has a particularly intricate “volcanic edifice” (the correct volcanologists’ technical term – meaning not just the geographical name, but the actual structure formed by its activity). Shiveluch is a textbook case of a complicated volcanic edifice. There’s a visibly prominent “collar” left over from previous eruptions; then everything got blown apart, and now a new formation is starting to grow – here:

This is about as near as we could get to the collar:

Here’s the new cone growing. But how long will it last until the next installment of volcanic destruction?

The fact that something’s clearly being pushed up (you can see the “blister” at the summit) means it’s going to erupt again soon – and probably quite powerfully. We’d best keep our distance!…

Unfortunately, clouds around the base of the volcano blocked the view, so we couldn’t see it in all its splendor. So this “inspection” doesn’t really count – we saw Shiveluch, but only part of it!

Other views of the summit:

…And the lava flows:

You can tell the lava flowed from a spot much higher up, which… isn’t there any more! So, not all that long ago (just a few thousand years), this volcano was much taller, and spewed out lava in great quantities. Then for some reason it collapsed in on itself, and now these lava flows are all that remain as evidence of its former majesty ->

Meanwhile, we fly onward!…

The best hi-res photos from Kamchatka-fall-2025 are here.