This paper is concerned with the eruptions that began simultaneously in the Karymsky volcanic center, Kamchatka, in 1996 and associated phenomena. A significant earthquake swarm started occurring there on January 1, 1996 with magnitudes as high as 6.9. A monoton. summit eruption of Karymsky Volcano followed on January 2, which has continued discharging andesite-dacite lava at a rate of 0.8 t/s until March 1997 and later. Basalts were emplaced along a fissure after 28 000 years of repose producing a phreatomagmatic eruption in the Akademia Nauk caldera at pyroclastic discharge rates of over 800 t/s. The distance between the erupting vents is 6 km. Basic tnunamt. waves resulting from underwater explosions and a high tsunami were observed, a new peninsula developed in the caldera lake, the ground surface experienced an extension of more than 2,3 m, and the fresh-water caldera lake of volume 0.47 km3 was transformed into an acid one (pH 3,2). Brief information is provided on the state of the volcanic center by the late 1995, a successful prediction, and the eruptions themselves. We estimate the depth to the pressure center in the primary magma chamber (18,3 ± 0,8 km), the volume of the crustal magma chambers (400 km3), possible dimensions of the emplaced dike in the stronger crustal layers (thickness 0,7 m, length 4700 m). We discuss a likely mechanism for and relations between the observed processes and the eruptions.