Shivelyuch - also known as Shiveluch - is the most northerly active volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, and it's not exactly shy about showing off. Satellites detect new signs of activity within its horseshoe-shaped caldera on a near-daily basis: thermal anomalies, hot avalanches, debris flows, and ash deposits that darken the surrounding landscape. It's basically the volcano equivalent of a reality TV star, minus the drama (okay, plus a lot of drama).

On April 23, 2026, the Landsat 9 satellite caught the towering beast - one of the largest and tallest on the peninsula - mid-melt, with fresh activity staining the snowy, late-spring landscape. A multi-lobed plug of viscous lava, called a lava dome, has been actively growing in recent months, according to the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT). Dome-building lava extrudes slowly and piles up into lobed, sloped, or spine-like shapes, much like toothpaste squeezed from a tube. Except instead of minty freshness, you get pyroclastic flows.

Lava domes on Shivelyuch cycle through growth and collapse, and when they collapse, they launch avalanches of hot ash and rock called pyroclastic flows. These debris slides carve through structures Alina Shevchenko, a volcanologist at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, calls "avalanche chutes" and "lahar channels" radiating outward from the caldera. Collapses can trigger "block-and-ash flows," which carry coarse, blocky chunks of cooled volcanic rock along with powdery ash. These flows often produce thick, insulating deposits that retain heat for months or even years, melting snow in the winter. The Landsat images show dark channels and exposed patches contrasting with the surrounding snow cover - nature's version of a dirty snowbank in April.

Satellites have been detecting thermal anomalies within the caldera and near the growing lava dome, plus warm land surface temperatures along the network of channels. On the day the image was acquired, KVERT reported that the "explosive-extrusive eruption" continued, accompanied by "powerful gas-steam activity." So, business as usual.

An unusually large eruption and dome collapse in April 2023 sent massive pyroclastic flows barreling tens of kilometers down the mountain, destroying forest and leaving deposits and flow channels near the foot that are still visible today. "It's quite possible that those deposits still retain some heat from that event," said Janine Krippner, a volcanologist based in New Zealand. Krippner noted that during field research on Shivelyuch block-and-ash flows in 2015, she could still feel heat within deposits that were five years old. That's some serious leftover warmth - like finding your pizza still hot in the oven the next morning.

"Shivelyuch is an incredible volcano that has collapsed over and over again, on several scales, ranging from enormous flank collapses to more modest dome-collapse events," Krippner said. "It goes through cycles of collapse but then builds itself up again and again through constant volcanic activity," she added. "It should really be on a motivational poster." We're taking notes: 'Fall down seven times, stand up eight' - volcano edition.