Activity in the Karymsky Center in 1996: Summit Eruption at Karymsky and Phreatomagmatic Eruption in the Akademii Nauk Caldera

Abstract

Data are presented from studies of volcanoes in the Karymsky long-living volcanic center, Kamchatka in 1996. We examine the dynamics and rock composition for eruptions that started simultaneously on Karymsky Volcano and in the Akademia Nauk caldera. The effusive-explosive eruption of Karymsky Volcano was resumed after a 14-year repose period, producing about 30 million tons of andesite-dacite discharges through the summit vent. Long-continued eruptive activity of that volcano is supposed to go on during the near future. Simultaneously with this activity, typical of Karymsky Volcano, a subaquaceous explosive eruption was observed in the lake that occupies the Akademia Nauk caldera 6 km south of the volcano for the first time in Kamchatka during the historical period. An edifice arose in the northern part of Lake Karymsky during 18 hours of this eruption consisting of basaltic and basaltic andesite pyroclastic material surrounding a crater of diameter 650 m. The amount of erupted pyroclastic material is estimated as 0.04 km3, the total weight being over 70 million tons. A discussion is provided of the impact of these eruptions on the environment; we describe renewed hydrothermal activity and the formation of a new group of hot springs in the Akademia Nauk caldera, and estimate the possibility of breakthrough floods from Lake Karymsky etc.