Avachinsky

Awatschinskaja Sopka ( Awatscha )

The Awatschinskaja Sopka (Russian Авачинская сопка; Gorjelaja also Sopka, Awatschinski or Awatscha; Russian Авачинский, Авача ) is an active stratovolcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia.

Location and description

The volcano is in sight 27 km north of the city of Petropavlovsk -Kamchatsky, the capital of the Kamchatka Region, and is 2741 meters high. He is a so-called Somma volcano, that is, the volcano grows out of the caldera of a larger, older volcano out ( 4 km in diameter ). The crater of Awatscha has a diameter of 350 meters and was up to its eruption in 1991 about 220 feet deep. Typical of this type of volcano closes lava eruptions before the crater like a slug.

Geological History

Awatscha lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire at a point where the Pacific plate at a rate of 80 millimeters per year subducted under the Eurasian plate. The subduction of the Pacific plate is the cause of the strong volcanic activity in the south of Kamchatka.

The volcano is one of the most active in the Peninsula and was active around the middle of the Pleistocene. It has a horseshoe-shaped caldera that was created by a flank collapse about 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. The associated debris avalanche covered an area of ​​over 500 km2 south of the volcano; including the territory of the city of Petropavlovsk -Kamchatsky. Subsequent eruptions inside the caldera, especially before 18,000 and 7,000 years ago, created the present shape of the volcano.

Today's activity

In historical times the Avacha is at least erupted 17 times, the eruptions were almost always explosive and thereafter a lava flow to the southwest in the broken caldera developed into it. The last strong eruption took place in 1945 and was noted on the Vulkanexplosivitätsindex ( VEI ) with a thickness of 4. About 0.25 km3 of magma were ejected it. 1991 and 2001 there were minor eruptions of the volcano.

To date, there are regular earthquakes in the area of the volcano. For a number of fumaroles in the area of the crater flow of gases with a temperature of about 400 ° C. Because of the proximity of the city of Petropavlovsk -Kamchatsky, the volcano in 1996 a detailed study was determined to be one of the "Decade Volcanoes " by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth 's Interior ( IAVCEI ), together with the neighboring volcano Korjakskaja Sopka, which are worth their history and their relationship to populated area make.

Swell

  • Droznin D., V. Levin, J. Park, E. Gordeev (2002 ) Detailed mapping of Seismic Anisotropy Indicators in Southeastern Kamchatka, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002
  • V. Levin, J. Park, E. Gordeev, Droznin D. (2002), Complex Anisotropic Structure of the Mantle Wedge Beneath Kamchatka Volcanoes, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002
  • Taran YA, Connor CB, Shapar VN, Ovsyannikov AA, AA Bilichenko (1997), fumarolic activity of Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes, Kamchatka, from 1993 to 1994, Bulletin of Volcanology, v. 58, p. 441-448
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