In 2017, increasing seismic activity was detected underneath and geophysicist Ivan Koulakov told CNN: “At any moment, an eruption could occur.” Mr Koulakov believes the volcano should be reclassified as active. 100 weak seismic events were detected between 1999 and September 2017.
However, between September 2017 and February of this year, around 2400 events have occurred.
February saw a 4.3 magnitude earthquake underneath the volcano, the strongest such event to be recorded in the area.
On the Richter Scale, this means the activity can be felt by most people with noticeable shaking of indoor objects and rattling.
Some people will feel the activity outside the affected zone.
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A team featuring geophysicists from Russia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia installed four monitoring stations around the volcano as part of a study.
They concluded a new pathway had been formed causing magma to flow into the volcano from the Earth’s lower crust.
Mr Koulakov noted that the volcano had similar features to another thought to be extinct volcano in the region, Bezymianny, which erupted in 1956.
The geophysicist believes the chances Bolshaya Udina will erupt are around 50 percent.
He admitted there was a chance that “it could just release the energy smoothly over a few months, or it may just disappear without any eruption”.
The villages around the volcano would be significantly impacted he said but did point out: “There are not many people around.”
However, the impacts of an eruption could spread behind Russia, Mr Koulakov warned an eruption could affect the climate in “completely different parts of the world”.
Volcanic ash in the atmosphere is likely to disrupt air travel.
There are few permanent seismic monitors in the area surrounding the volcano and Mr Koulakov said: “We need to deploy more stations to understand if it’s dangerous or not, it’s highly unpredictable.”