Klyuchevskaya Sopka

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Klyuchevskaya Sopka
Eruption of January 2005
Elevation	4,750 metres (15,584 ft)
Location	Kamchatka, Russia
Prominence	4,649 m (15,253 ft) Ranked 13th
Coordinates	56°04′N 160°38′E / 56.067, 160.633Coordinates: 56°04′N 160°38′E / 56.067, 160.633
Type	Stratovolcano (active)
Last eruption	July, 2007
First ascent	1788 by Daniel Gauss and 2 others
Easiest route	basic rock/snow climb

Klyuchevskaya Sopka (Russian: Ключевская сопка) is the highest mountain on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, and the largest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere.^[1] The volcano's steep, symmetrical cone towers are a mere 100 km (60 miles) from the Bering Sea. The volcano is part of the natural UNESCO World Heritage Site Volcanoes of Kamchatka.

Klyuchevskaya's first recorded eruption occurred in 1697, and it has been almost continuously active ever since, as have many of its neighboring volcanoes. First climbed in 1788 by Daniel Gauss and two other members of the Billings Expedition. No other ascents were then recorded until 1931, when several climbers were killed by flying lava on the descent. As similar dangers still exist today, few ascents are made.

Klyuchevskaya Sopka is considered sacred by some indigenous peoples, being viewed by them as the location at which the world was created. Other volcanoes in the region are seen with similar spiritual significance, but Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the most sacred of these. It is said that when the god Volkov created the world, this was the point at which he held it, and so it remains unfinished, unsealed, thus the volcanic activity.

[edit] 2007 Eruption

Beginning in early January, 2007, the Klyuchevskaya volcano began another eruption cycle. Students from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and scientists of the Alaska Volcano Observatory traveled to Kamchatka in the spring to monitor the eruption. On June 28, 2007, the volcano began to experience the largest explosions so far recorded in this eruption cycle. An ash plume from the eruption reached a height of 32,000 feet before drifting westward, disrupting air traffic from the United States to Asia and causing ashfalls on Alaska's Unimak Island.