On July 29, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, a magnitude 8.8 beast, rattled the Kamchatka Peninsula region of Russia. The quake was powerful enough to possibly trigger a cascade of volcanic eruptions—seven, to be exact.
Or so some scientists believe. There’s some debate about that.
Seven volcanoes, including some that hadn’t erupted in centuries, suddenly woke up and started firing. The volcanic chain reaction kicked off on July 30 with Klyuchevskaya, one of Earth’s tallest volcanoes. It had already been rumbling, so scientists think the earthquake didn’t cause the eruption outright but may have given it a little nudge.
Lava began pouring down its slopes, explosions rocked the summit, and a “powerful glow” lit up the sky, according to Russia’s Geophysical Service. And the