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Report on Zavaritzki Caldera (Russia) — March 1989


Zavaritzki Caldera

Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 14, no. 3 (March 1989)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.

Zavaritzki Caldera (Russia) Gas emission near the 1957 dome; caldera lake

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1989. Report on Zavaritzki Caldera (Russia) (McClelland, L., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 14:3. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198903-290180



Zavaritzki Caldera

Russia

46.925°N, 151.95°E; summit elev. 624 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


During a 14 January overflight, strong gas emission was observed near the 1957 dome, in the N part of the caldera. A lake occupied the caldera center.

Geological Summary. Zavaritzki volcano in central Simushir Island contains three nested calderas of 10-, 8-, and 3-km diameter. The steep-walled youngest caldera was formed during the Holocene and contains a lake whose surface is about 40 m elevation and whose bottom lies about 30 m below sea level. Several young cones and lava domes are located near the margins of Biryuzovoe caldera lake. Lacustrine sediments overlying pumice deposits indicate that an earlier caldera lake lay at 200 m above sea level, well above the present lake surface. Two eruptions have occurred at Zavaritzki during the 20th century. A lava dome that was emplaced sometime between 1916 and 1931 forms a small island in the northern part of the caldera lake. In 1957, a new 350-m-wide, 40-m-high dome was emplaced following explosive eruptions, decreasing the size of the caldera lake.

Information Contacts: G. Steinberg, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.