Holocene Kamchatka volcanoes
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology
Kamchatka, Russia
 
Global Volcanism Program number
1000-04
Zheltovsky

Summit Dome: 51°35' N, 157°20' E, summit elevation 1953 m



 
Fig.1



Fig.2



Fig.3


Zheltovsky
is rather poorly studied a volcano. It is a composite edifice and consists of a large volcano-piedestal crowned with Late Pleistocene caldera, which encloses Late Pleistocene stratovolcano topped with several Holocene extrusive domes (Figs. 1 and 2). Pumice tuff presumably related to the Late Pleistocene caldera is exposed east of the volcano. White pumice from the Holocene Kurile Lake caldera eruption covers the slopes of the volcano; ignimbrite from this eruption fills the valley between Zheltovsky and Iliinsky volcanoes (Fig.2).

During Holocene, several extrusive domes formed in the summit part of the volcano, each sending a mantle of debris downslope. In addition, several explosive eruptions of Zheltovsky are known: one of them happened between 3 and 4 ka BP and produced black cinders of basaltic andesite composition; another produced a large andesitic block-and-ash flow and minor fallout ~500 yr BP (Fig.3); and, finally, one of the most recent eruptions presumably happened in the 19th century and produced fallout consisting of heavy sub-rounded basaltic lapilli rich in allivalite and eucrite inclusions. Both latest eruptions caused large lahars, which traveled towards the Pacific coast.

Holocene products of Zheltovsky are low-potassic basalts-andesites.

Vera Ponomareva

Literature

Fedotov SA, Masurenkov YuP (eds) (1991) Active volcanoes of Kamchatka. Nauka, Moscow. Vol.1, 302 p.

Masurenkov YuP, Ed. (1980) Long existing center of endogenic activity in South Kamchatka. Nauka, Moscow, 300 pp. (in Russian)

Novograblenov PT (1932) The catalogue of volcanoes of Kamchatka. Isvestiya Gos. Geogr. Sci.  XIY-l:88-99 (In Russian)

Ponomareva VV, Sulerzhitsky LD, Dirksen OV, Zaretskaia NE (2001)  Holocene paleosols as records of intervals of volcanic quiescence in the Kurile Lake region, South Kamchatka. In: E. Juvigné & J.P. Raynal (eds.) "TEPHRAS, chronology, archaeology". Les dossiers de l'Archéo-Logie n° 1. CDERAD ed., pp. 91-100