Moment snow-covered volcano erupts – shooting massive plume of ash into the air

THIS is the incredible moment a snow-covered volcano erupts shooting a massive plume of ash and gas into the air.

Stunning footage shows the Ebeko volcano, located on Paramushir Island, in Kuril Islands, Russia, spewing ashes reaching hundreds of meters to the sky.

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 It is a highly active somma volcano that was filmed waking up after a three-month break.

Video captured by photographer Elena Kotenko on Sunday shows ash and gas shot out of the volcano’s crater sending snow and ice into the air.

According to Volcano Discovery, the eruption was “likely a phreatic or hydrothermal explosion as interaction of snow and ice causes phreatic explosions at the contact with lava.”

It said: “The height of the ash and gas plume is unknown and was not reported by the observatory nor by VAAC yet, but from available imagery seems to be several hundred meters above the summit.”

The video was shared online leaving social media users stunned.

Someone said: “Wow, what a pretty eruption!”

Another one commented: “The first few seconds look like Sarlacc coming at you.”

Ebeko is a stratovolcano and its last eruptive activity was recorded in November.

There are about 1,500 volcanoes that have been active in the last 10,000 years.

There are several reasons for a volcano to erupt with the most common type of eruption being caused by the movement of tectonic plates.

They all fundamentally come down to a  pressure change within the volcano which forces the magma to overflow the chamber it is held in.

The most common type of eruption is caused by the movement of tectonic plates.

The second type of eruption caused by tectonic plates is when the plates move away from each other allowing magma to rise and fill the the gap, which can cause a gentle explosion of thin lava of temperatures between 800 to 1,200C.

Decreasing temperatures can cause old magma to crystallise and sink to the bottom of the chamber and this movement can force fresh liquid magma up and out – similar to dropping a brick in a bucket of water.