Around the planet, there are a number of highly dangerous volcanoes.
These include Mount Vesuvius in Italy, the Taal volcano in the Philippines, and Mount
Merapi in Indonesia.
These 3 volcanoes are included in a group of 16 volcanic systems known for their history
of large and destructive eruptions, which are collectively called decade volcanoes.
Within Russia is one of these decade volcanoes, which few outside Kamchatka have ever heard
of.
The volcano I am referring to is Koryaksky, which alongside its sister volcano, Avachinsky,
are considered to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet.
So, why is this the case?
How old is this volcano?
This video will discuss this Russian volcano, and mention what its future hazards are.
The Koryaksky volcano can be found in the Far East of Russia on the incredibly volcanically
active peninsula of Kamchatka.
It is located on the southeastern section of the overall peninsula, near the city of
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
The population of this city is 180,000, meaning that all of these people are in potential
danger if the volcano was to ever produce a very large eruption.
The reason why this volcano exists along with the other approximately 100 active volcanoes
in Kamchatka relates to a plate collision occurring offshore the peninsula.
There, the Okhotsk tectonic plate is colliding with the Pacific plate.
The melted crust from this collision then migrates upwards before erupting on the surface
and forming a chain of volcanoes.
Koryaksky is one of the tallest volcanoes within Kamchatka, where it stands at 3430
meters or 11253 feet in height.
The overall volcano has a solid gray coloration, hinting that its primarily composed of andesite
lavas.
Numerous valleys can be seen carved on the edifice of this volcano from both partial
edifice collapses and glaciers.
Although the true age of this volcano is unknown, I estimate its age based on the overall level
of erosion present to be around 130,000 years old.
Koryaksky began forming more than 100,000 years ago, when viscous andesite lava reached
the surface.
When it erupted, it did so in an explosive manner, due to large amounts of trapped gasses
in the molten rock and ice present on the ground.
As volumes of ash and lava were kicked up, small pyroclastic flows were generated in
what is termed a "vulcanian" eruption.
These largely fell back to the ground, forming a central volcanic cone.
It had a large crater in its center as this represented where the majority of explosive
activity occurred.
Within only a few thousand years, a new vent opened 4 kilometers north of the main volcanic
cone.
Instead of erupting andesite, this smaller vent erupted basalt, via a less explosive
style of eruption.
Over time, this vent built a 300 meter tall feature known as a cinder cone.
The reason it is red is it erupted a type of basaltic lava known as scoria, which is
often this color.
As the central edifice of the Koryaksky volcano passed 1,000 meters in height, another series
of cinder cone forming eruptions began.
These constructed 4 separate cinder cones, some of which have since been highly eroded.
As the volcano became taller and taller, large partial summit collapses began to occur, as
parts of the oversteepened volcano collapsed to a side.
The largest of these landslides reached 30 kilometers away, and much of the large city
to the south is built on top of these deposits from both adjacent volcanoes.
This is the main reason why this volcano is so dangerous.
Just like Colima in Mexico, it has produced many large volume landslides in the past.
Around 20,000 years ago, eruptions from Koryaksky became far less frequent.
However, on occasion large eruptions still occurred, such as a group of two eruptions
in 1950 BC and 1550 BC.
These each melted large amounts of glacial ice, causing 50 meter tall lahars to flow
all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Although these large lahar events are quite rare, it is worrying that so many people are
located within a high risk zone.
Since then, a number of flank vents erupted long distance flows of viscous lava.
Individual flows at times traveled 12 kilometers from their source.
Since 1890, 4 distinct eruptions have occurred.
All of these eruptions were relatively small explosive eruptions, giving a false sense
of security as to how dangerous Koryaksky really is.
I hope that you enjoyed this video!
If you would like to request a specific topic, please leave a comment below.
Additionally, if you wish to support this channel consider becoming a patron on patreon!