Very few age controls exist for Quaternary deposits over the vast territory of the East Russian Arctic, which hampers dating of major environmental changes in this area and prevents their correlation to climatic changes in the Arctic and Pacific marine domains. We report a newly identified ~177 ka old Rauchua tephra, which has been dispersed over an area of >1,500,000 km2 and directly links terrestrial paleoenvironmental archives from Arctic Siberia with marine cores in the northwest Pacific, thus permitting their synchronization and dating. The Rauchua tephra can help to identify deposits formed in terrestrial and marine environments during the oxygen isotope stage 6.5 warming event. Chemical composition of volcanic glass from the Rauchua tephra points to its island-arc origin, while its spatial distribution singles out the Kamchatka volcanic arc as a source. The Rauchua tephra represents a previously unknown, large (magnitude >6.5) explosive eruption from the Kamchatka volcanic arc.

This paper aims to aid understanding of the complicated interplay between construction and destruction of volcanoes, with an emphasis on the role of substrate tectonic heritage in controlling magma conduit geometry, lateral collapse, landslides, and preferential erosion pathways. The influence of basement structure on the development of six composite volcanoes located in different geodynamic/geological environments is described: Stromboli (Italy), in an island arc extensional tectonic setting, Ollagüe (Bolivia–Chile) in a cordilleran extensional setting, Kizimen (Russia) in a transtensional setting, Pinatubo (Philippines) in a transcurrent setting, Planchon (Chile) in a compressional cordilleran setting, and Mt. Etna (Italy) in a complex tectonic boundary setting. Analogue and numerical modelling results are used to enhance understanding of processes exemplified by these volcanic centres. We provide a comprehensive overview of this topic by considering a great deal of relevant, recently published studies and combine these with the presentation of new results, in order to contribute to the discussion on substrate tectonics and its control on volcano evolution. The results show that magma conduits in volcanic rift zones can be geometrically controlled by the regional tectonic stress field. Rift zones produce a lateral magma push that controls the direction of lateral collapse and can also trigger collapse. Once lateral collapse occurs, the resulting debuttressing produces a reorganization of the shallow-level magma migration pathways towards the collapse depression. Subsequent landslides and erosion tend to localize along rift zones. If a zone of weakness underlies a volcano, long-term creep can occur, deforming a large sector of the cone. This deformation can trigger landslides that propagate along the destabilized flank axis. In the absence of a rift zone, normal and transcurrent faults propagating from the substrate through the volcano can induce flank instability in directions respectively perpendicular and oblique to fault strike. This destabilization can evolve to lateral collapse with triggering mechanisms such as seismic activity or magmatic intrusion.

The work is devoted to the activity analysis of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands volcanoes in 2019-2020.The activity of the volcanoes was estimated based on the processing of data from daily satellite monitoring carried out using the information system “Remote monitoring of Kamchatkan and the Kuriles volcanoes activity (VolSatView)”. The activity of the Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands volcanoes considered based on the analysis of their thermal anomalies. Analysis of the characteristics of thermal anomalies over volcanoes was carried out in KVERT IS. Analysis of the temperature of thermal anomalies of volcanoes in the Kuril - Kamchatka region in 2019-2020 shows a significantly higher activity of the Kamchatka volcanoes in comparison with the Kuril volcanoes.

Abstract We use both regional and local infrasound data to investigate the dynamics of the 2012–2013 eruption of Tolbachik Volcano, Kamchatka, Russia during select periods of time. Analysis of regional data recorded at the {IMS} array {IS44} in southern Kamchatka, ~ 384 km from the vent focuses on the eruption onset in November 2012, while analysis of local data focuses on activity in February and August 2013. Signals recorded from Tolbachik suggest a change in eruptive intensity possibly occurred from November 27–30, 2012. Local infrasound data recorded at distances of 100–950 m from the vent are characterized primarily by repeated, transient explosion signals indicative of gas slug bursts. Three methods are employed to pick slug burst events in February and August. The nature of slug bursts makes a monopole acoustic source model particularly fitting, permitting volume outflux and slug radius calculations for individual events. Volume outfluxes and slug radii distributions provide three possible explanations for the eruption style of Tolbachik Volcano from mid-February to late August. Cumulative outflux for slug bursts (i.e. mass of emissions from individual bursts) derived by infrasound for both February and August range from < 100 to ~ 3000 kg. These values are greater than infrasound-derived emissions calculated at Pacaya Volcano, but less than those calculated at Mt. Erebus Volcano. From this, we determine slug bursts at Tolbachik Volcano in February and August were larger on average than those at Pacaya Volcano in 2010, but smaller on average than those at Mt. Erebus in 2008. Our overall emissions estimates are in general agreement with estimates from satellite observations. This agreement supports the monopole source inversion as a potential method for estimating mass of emissions from slug burst events.