Melting Snow Off Shivelyuch – NASA Science

Shivelyuch (also called Shiveluch), the northernmost active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Almost daily, satellites detect new signs of activity in its horseshoe-shaped caldera, including thermal anomalies, hot avalanches and debris flows, and ash deposits that darken the surrounding landscape.

The Landsat 9 satellite captured this image of the imposing volcano—one of the largest and highest on the peninsula, on April 23, 2026, the day a new activity left its mark on the snowy landscape of late spring. A multilobed plug of viscous lava called a lava dome, appearing as a dark spot in the caldera—has been actively growing in recent months, according to reports from the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT). The dome-forming lava is typically extruded slowly and accumulates in lobed, slanted, or spine-like shapes, similar to those that form when toothpaste is squeezed from a tube.

On Shivelyuch, lava domes go through periods of growth and collapse, frequently producing explosive explosions of ash and triggering avalanches of hot ash and earth called pyroclastic flows as they collapse. The debris slides through structures that Alina Shevchenko, a volcanologist at the GFZ Helmholtz Geoscience Center, called “avalanche falls” and “lahar channels” radiating outward from the caldera. Collapses can trigger events that geologists call “block and ash flows,” which typically contain coarse, blocky pieces of cooled volcanic rock as well as powdery volcanic ash and soil.

Such flows often produce thick, insulating deposits that retain heat for long periods of time, sometimes even months or years, melting snow during the winter months. As shown in the Landsat images above, this activity leaves dark channels and exposed areas that contrast with the surrounding snow cover.

Satellites have regularly detected thermal anomalies within the caldera and near the growing lava dome in recent months, as well as warm land surface temperatures along the channel network. On the day the image was acquired, KVERT reported that the volcano’s “explosive-extrusive eruption” was continuing, accompanied by “powerful gas-vapor activity.”

An unusually large eruption and flank collapse in April 2023 sent massive pyroclastic flows hurtling down the mountain for dozens of kilometers, destroying large swaths of forest and leaving significant deposits and flow channels near the foot of the mountain that are still visible today. “It’s quite possible that these deposits still retain some heat from this event,” said Janine Krippner, a geologist based in New Zealand. Krippner noted that when she did field research on the Shivelyuch block and ash flows in 2015, she could still feel the heat in five-year-old deposits.

“Shivelyuch is an incredible volcano that has collapsed again and again, on multiple scales, from huge flank collapses to more modest dome collapses,” Krippner said. “It goes through cycles of collapse, but then rebuilds again and again through constant volcanic activity,” she added. “This really should be on a motivational poster.”

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from United States Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

• Global Volcanism Program (2026) Sheveluch. Accessed May 5, 2026.
• Grishin, S.Y., et al. (2025) Impact of the major eruption of the Shiveluch volcano (April 2023, Kamchatka) on ecosystems: the extent of burial and damage to forests based on satellite data. Izvestia, Atmospheric and oceanic physics, 61, 1129-1136.
• Krippner, JB, et al. (2018) Parametric analysis of lava dome collapse events and pyroclastic deposits at Shiveluch Volcano, Kamchatka, using visible and infrared satellite data. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research354, 115-129.
• Krippner, JB, et al. (2018) Exceptionally large block and ash flows: a detailed study of the 2005 and 2010 eruption deposits of Shiveluch volcano. EarthArXiv preprint.
• NASA Earth Observatory (April 12, 2023) Kamchatka eruption. Accessed May 5, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (January 25, 2011) Activity at Shiveluch Volcano. Accessed May 5, 2026.
• Shevchenko, A., et al. (2021) Constructive and destructive processes during the 2018-2019 eruption episode of Shiveluch volcano, Kamchatka, studied using satellite and aerial data. Frontiers of Earth Science Volcanology9, 680051.
• Zharinov, NA & Demyanchuk, YV (2024) The catastrophic explosive eruption of April 11, 2023 of the Sheveluch volcano, Kamchatka. Journal of Volcanology and Seismology, 18, 1-9.