Kamchatka's most active volcano, Karymsky, erupted Monday after being subdued since 1982, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The eruption was preceded by several earthquakes, the strongest measuring a magnitude of 6 at its epicenter 60 miles north of Kamchatka's main city, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
The Karymsky volcano itself is located 90 miles north of the city in an unpopulated area.
According to scientists, the eruption began on Karymsky's slope, rather than its crater. On Wednesday, the column of ashes over the volcano reached 3.7 miles into the air and steam and boiling water shot up as high as 1.2 miles, ITAR-Tass said.
Stanislav Balesta, head of the regional center monitoring seismic and volcanic activity, told ITAR-Tass after visiting the site that a new volcano also appeared to be emerging at the bottom of nearby Lake Karymsky. That sites was 1.9 miles south of the old cone.
Balesta said scientists believed the lake will likely dry out and be replaced with the new volcano, a process that could take years.
Kamchatka is a sparsely-populated peninsula 4,200 miles east of Moscow that borders the Bering Sea and is lined by volcanic mountains and dense forests.
Fairbanks Daily New-Miner, January 4, 1996.