Within Russia are a number of interesting and unusual volcanoes. The vast majority
of the nation's more than 150 active volcanoes are located in the Kamchatka peninsula. However, there
are a select few volcanoes within Russia which are located in the western part of the country.
One of these volcanoes is the tallest point in all of Europe, and is known as Mount Elbrus. It last
erupted about 2,000 years ago, and will certainly erupt again. This video will discuss this volcano,
and mention what its future hazards are. Mount Elbrus is located in southwest Russia,
where part of its volcanic complex straddles the border with the nation of Georgia.
Elbrus is a truly massive volcano, which stands at 5,642 meters or 18,510 feet tall. As such, this
volcano has been active for quite a long time, as it began forming 1 million years ago. The reason
why this volcano exists is due to two colliding plate boundaries southwest of the Russian border.
There, the Arabian plate is being subducted underneath the Eurasian plate. The melted crust
from this collision then migrates upwards until it erupts on the surface, thus creating a volcano.
The initial eruptions from Mount Elbrus were quite similar to those witnessed
today at the Karymsky volcano. During these moderately explosive eruptions,
large quantities of dark colored lava and ash piled on top of one another in layers.
However, as the underlying magma chamber interacted with surrounding siliceous rock, the
lava changed in composition and also became more siliceous. By 810,000 years ago, eruptions from
Mount Elbrus produced a gray rock called andesite instead of darker colored basaltic andesite. Then,
790,000 years ago, the composition of lava changed once again, which allowed large amounts of gas
to build in the more viscous lava. This pressure continued to build for some time, until suddenly,
a majority of Mount Elbrus exploded in a catastrophic eruption. As a plume of ash shot 50
kilometers into the sky, pyroclastic flows raced down the mountain in every direction. Due to the
large volume of lava erupted, the 4600 meter tall volcano suddenly collapsed, thus forming a large
caldera. The remnants of this caldera can still be seen today, which measures 14 kilometers wide and
17 kilometers long. This eruption was truly massive, and likely ejected about 200 cubic
kilometers of tephra. Around the mountain, layers of ash up to 250 meters thick were deposited.
Eventually, lava once again began filling the area filled by the caldera collapse. This caused the
south central section of the caldera to be pushed upwards several hundred meters, thus forming a
feature referred to as a resurgent dome. Over the next 500,000 years, very few eruptions occurred.
Then, 170,000 years ago, the modern mount Elbrus began to erupt on top of the recently formed
resurgent dome. The eruptions from this volcano had a mixture of eruption styles,
but primarily produced thick and viscous flows of dacite lava. Much like vegetable
oil compared to water, these lava flows moved very slowly and did not travel far, resulting
in the creation of a new steep volcanic cone. By 60,000 years ago, 99% of Mount Elbrus had
formed, creating a set of twin peaks. Eruptions from this volcano have subsequently become less
frequent, although several relatively recent eruptions have occurred. The only verified
recent eruption from Mount Elbrus took place in 50 AD, and created a new lava flow to the east
of its secondary summit. With this being said, there is also evidence that Mount Elbrus may
have erupted as little as 100 years ago, although only limited evidence supports this assertion.
Regardless, if Mount Elbrus was to erupt again it could pose a number of hazards.
The most significant of these are lahars, which would form if a substantial amount of snow
and ice on the summit of Elbrus was melted during an eruption. These floodwaters would
then travel downhill, and be funneled into two different slot canyons. These slow canyons
would allow the lahars to travel up to 200 kilometers away, affecting a number of towns.
Due to the composition of lava at Elbrus, any future eruption would be accompanied by
pyroclastic flows. These flows could travel up to 30 kilometers from the volcano's
summit. Overall, the odds of Mount Elbrus erupting are about 1 in 2000 each year.
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