Fears over 'Ring of Fire' eruptions as Russian volcano roars into life for the first time in 500 years following huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake
The Krasheninnikov Volcano in Kamchatka, Russia, roared into life in a 'historic' eruption on Sunday.
As it erupted for the first time in over 500 years, the volcano sent a plume of ash 3.7 miles (6 km) into the sky.
According to experts, this destructive blast was likely triggered by the huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake which struck last week.
Last Wednesday, Russia was hit by the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded, sending people fleeing from tsunami warnings as far away as Chile and Hawaii.
Shortly after the tremor, another volcano in the Kamchatka region also erupted, sending streams of lava pouring down its slopes.
Dr Alexey Ozerov, Director of the Russian Institute of Volcanic and Seismic Sciences, said that there was a 'direct connection' between the powerful earthquake and these eruptions.
Dr Ozerov says: 'We associate the eruptions with the earthquake, which activated magmatic centres, and "pumped" additional energy into them.'
Last Wednesday, data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) showed an earthquake struck about 84 miles east-southeast of Kamchatka, Russia, at around 7:24 pm EST, marking the sixth strongest earthquake ever.
Just hours later, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the largest volcano in the Kamchatka Peninsula, exploded with a stream of lava and ash.
On Sunday, the Krasheninnikov Volcano became the second volcano to suddenly erupt following the earthquake.
The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) called the eruption 'historic' and reported that clouds of ash travelled 46 miles (75 km) from the blast.
The last time Krasheninnikov erupted was sometime between 1423 and 1503.
Roughly nine hours after the eruption, KVERT issued an aviation 'red alert' warning of significant levels of ash being sent into the atmosphere.
As of Monday evening local time, the eruption remained ongoing with KVERT warning that 'ash explosions up to 10 km (32,800 ft) a.s.l. could occur at any time'.
Following the eruption, the region was hit by another 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which triggered tsunami warnings all across the peninsula.
What would happen if the Ring of Fire erupted?
If the Ring of Fire erupted, the most immediate effects would be felt by areas close to volcanoes.
Eruptions up to a ranking of seven on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, as large as Krakatoa, would occur all along the chain of volcanoes.
Ash injected into the atmosphere could cause planes to crash and trigger global travel chaos.
The injection of dust and sulphur into the atmosphere would then lead to global cooling.
This could drop temperatures as much as 1°C (1.8°F), leading to widespread crop failure.
Scientists now say that all three of these events could have been caused by Sunday's earthquake.
Dr Jonathan Paul, a volcanologist from Royal Holloway University of London, told Daily Mail: 'The earthquake released a huge amount of stress in the crust, which could have made an eruption easier by opening up new lines of weakness through which magma could travel upwards.'
Dr Paul says that the delay between the initial earthquake and the eruption of Krasheninnikov is likely due to the fact that the fractures in the rock took time to develop.
In the days between the events, magma would have been forcing itself through new lines of weakness and building up enough pressure to erupt.
These events have sparked concerns that more volcanic activity may be on its way.
Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula has an exceptionally high density of active volcanoes because it is situated directly above the Ring of Fire - a 25,000-mile chain of volcanoes that stretches around the Pacific Ocean.
Made up of numerous faults between shifting tectonic plates, the Ring of Fire is home to over 425 volcanoes, making up 75 per cent of all active volcanic sites on Earth.
This includes some of the most destructive volcanoes ever to erupt, including Krakatoa, Mount Tambora, and Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai.
Could the Ring of Fire erupt?
Scientists say that an earthquake could never cause the entire Ring of Fire to erupt.
Earthquakes can only trigger eruptions in volcanoes that were going to erupt anyway.
The Ring of Fire is made up of too many plate borders with different geometries and rock types for this to ever occur.
Some scientists have suggested that a sufficiently large earthquake could trigger more volcanic activity along the Ring of Fire.
Michael Manga, a geoscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, previously told the Daily Mail: 'The volcanoes in volcanic arcs, including Chile, the US Cascades, Japan, Indonesia and Kamchatka, are prone to erupt after earthquakes.'
Were the Ring of Fire to erupt, the results could be extremely dangerous.
People in the vicinity of a volcano would be at risk from falling rocks, toxic gases, deadly mudslides, and boiling hot pyroclastic flows.
The bigger danger would come from the fact that, as volcanoes erupt, they inject huge quantities of sulphur and dust into the upper atmosphere.
This could block out the sun and cause global temperatures to plummet as much as 1°C (1.8°F) for several years.
Dr Paul says: 'Both the eruption and earthquake are bound together by plate tectonics.
'Earthquakes are always a likelihood around the Ring of Fire because of localised plate tectonic activity.
'Earthquakes are triggered because the movement of tectonic plates with respect to each other isn't a continuous process; it takes place in fits and starts, because of the build-up and release of friction and pressure.'
However, although scientists say that more eruptions and earthquakes are possible, a mass eruption event is extremely unlikely.
Dr Paul says: 'Earthquakes can only trigger volcanic eruptions when the volcano is "ready"; in other words, there is a sufficiently high build-up of pressure beneath the ground.
'An analogy might be a can of Coke that has been shaken up; the earthquake would be lifting the ring-pull that leads to an eruption.'
Since this 'ready' condition isn't very common in nature, earthquakes like those in Russia are unlikely to cause multiple eruptions.
WHAT IS EARTH'S RING OF FIRE?
The Ring of Fire is a horseshoe-shaped geological disaster zone and hotbed of tectonic and volcanic activity.
Roughly 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes occur in the belt, which is also home to more than 450 volcanoes.
The seismic region stretches along the Pacific Ocean coastlines, where the Pacific Plate grinds against other plates that form the Earth's crust.
It loops from New Zealand to Chile, passing through the coasts of Asia and the Americas on the way.
In total, the loop makes up a 25,000-mile-long (40,000km) zone prone to frequent earthquakes and eruptions.
The region is susceptible to disasters because it is home to a vast number of 'subduction zones', areas where tectonic plates overlap.
Earthquakes are triggered when these plates scrape or slide underneath one another. When that happens at sea it can spawn tsunamis.
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