A volcano near a major naval base on Russia’s eastern coast erupted early Sunday after a powerful magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck in the Pacific about 63 miles away, according to Russian state-run media.
The Shiveluch volcano spewed an ash column as high as 5 mils above sea level and released a gush of lava, TASS reported Sunday morning, citing scientists with the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The volcano is about 280 miles from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a coastal city of more than 181,000 people in Russia’s eastern region of Kamchatka. The city is surrounded by volcanoes and sits across a bay from an important Russian submarine base.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake occurred 18 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Its epicenter was about 63 miles east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. There were no early reports of damage or injuries from the quake.
The quake prompted a tsunami warning that was later lifted.
The U.S. National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu initially warned that hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 300 miles (480 kilometers) of the earthquake epicenter, but later announced the threat had ended.
The center said minor sea level fluctuations could occur in some coastal areas near the earthquake site for several hours.
