Environmental Effect of the 1996-2000 Eruptions in the Akademii Nauk Caldera
and the Karymsky Volcano (Relief, Pools, Plants)
V.I. Andreev, G.A. Karpov, M.A. Maguskin, V.M. Miroshnikov

The Institute of Volcanology, Far East Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, 683006,
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Piip blvd., 9, Russia

Submarine eruption in the Akademii Nauk Caldera, having continued for about one day, was accompanied by seismic activity and creeps that went on for several years. Two powerful lachars, one accompanying the eruption, the other having emerged four months later, brought to the Karymaskaya river valley about 106 m3 of fine, mostly volcanic material, a considerable portion of which deposited at the broadest and flattest areas of the valley. Redistribution of the ash having settled onto the ground surface, lasted several years and led in some cases to a significant contrast of the ash thickness at neighboring areas. Moderate ash-falls, which had happened here for hundreds of years before, supported local formation of relatively thick soil-ash beds. Because of the earth surface deformation, contrast zones got distinguished, where geothermal manifestations livened up or faded. Loose volcanogenic material in the vicinity of the Karymsky volcano underwent compression that was the most notable in sites where there were fewer large monolithic fragments. The masses of lithified volcanogenic-sedimentary deposits in the southern sector of the Karymsky volcano caldera as well as those of geyserite deposits around the Akademii Nauk springs, whose thickness was about 1 m, screened and localized thermal spring discharges.

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