In March 2013, the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) celebrated the 20th anniversary of its activity. This team, which was created by the joint efforts of Russian and American scientists, analyzes on a daily basis the data supplied by the complex (seismic, video, visual, and satellite) monitoring system of volcanoes of Kamchatka and the Northern Kuril Islands to notify airline companies and all interested organizations about potential hazards.

The first historical eruption of Kambalny volcano began on March 24, 2017 with the powerful ash emission from the summit crater reaching as high as 6 km above sea level. The explosive activity continued without interruption from March 24 to March 30. The most powerful ash emission was registered on March 25–26, when the ash plume drifted several thousand kilometers SW, S, and SE from the volcano. On April 2 and April 9, after several calm days, powerful ash explosions occurred generating ash plumes up to 7 km high. The area of the land and sea over which the ash plume drifted during the day of March 25, was 650000 km2; the area of the ash accumulation on the land that was formed from March 24 to April 9, exceeded 1500 km2. These parameters were measured using the satellite-based data in the VolSatView information system. Domination of the silty fraction and the presence of secondary minerals (pyrite, gypsum, sulfur, and others) in the ash point to the phreatic character of the volcanic eruption.

Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands are home to 36 active volcanoes with yearly explosive eruptions that eject ash to heights of 8 to 15 km above sea level, posing hazards to jet planes. In order to reduce the risk of planes colliding with ash clouds in the north Pacific, the KVERT team affiliated with the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IV&S FEB RAS) has conducted daily satellite-based monitoring of Kamchatka volcanoes since 2002. Specialists at the IV&S FEB RAS, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SRI RAS), the Computing Center of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CC FEB RAS), and the Far East Planeta Center of Space Hydrometeorology Research (FEPC SHR) have developed, introduced into practice, and were continuing to refine the VolSatView information system for Monitoring of Volcanic Activity in Kamchatka and on the Kuril Islands during the 2011–2015 period. This system enables integrated processing of various satellite data, as well as of weather and land-based information for continuous monitoring and investigation of volcanic activity in the Kuril–Kamchatka region. No other information system worldwide offers the abilities that the Vol-SatView has for studies of volcanoes. This paper shows the main abilities of the application of VolSatView for routine monitoring and retrospective analysis of volcanic activity in Kamchatka and on the Kuril Islands.

Compositional zonation in olivine phenocrysts and diffusion modelling have been used in the last ten years to estimate magma residence times and the duration of magma ascent. The fundamental assumption is that mixing with newly injected magma into a reservoir triggers diffusional exchange between mafic olivine crystals and more evolved magma and that this magma mixing eventually triggers eruption. If depth of mixing is known, this translates to ascent rates of magmas to the surface. We applied this approach to a series of different arc basalt lavas from Kamchatka to constrain the rates of magma ascent and magma resident in what is one of the most active subduction zones in the world that is also dominated by an abundance of unusually mafic magmas. Our sample collection cover the principal modes of arc magmatism in Kamchatka: from different volcanic complexes (stratovolcano, dikes, summit eruptions, monogenetic cones), of different age (from Late-Pleistocene to Holocene and recent eruptions), from different magmatic regimes (long-lived volcanoes vs. monogenetic eruptions) and different major element composition (from basalt to basaltic andesite of different geochemical character including LILE enrichments). We analyzed and modelled zonation profiles for a range of elements with different diffusivities (e.g. Mg-Fe, Ca, Ni, Mn, Cr) to assess the role of variable diffusivities as a function of major and trace elements in the olivines from different P-T conditions. First data were obtained on samples from the Klyuchevskoy, Shiveluch and Tolbachik, including recent most eruption in 2012/2013. These data show that for some samples the zonation patterns are much more complex than is usually observed: high-Mg olivines at different volcanoes have very different zonation patterns, including normally, reversely zoned grains or even show highly complex repetitive zonation that indicate large compositional changes in the surrounding magma at very short time scales (years). Thus in some Kamchatka basalts, we observe unusual Mg-Fe zonations that are linked to complex mixing, possibly resorption and subsequent crystal growth processes that are generally not preserved due to fast diffusion of Mg-Fe. Based on a first assessment of our measured profiles, the values for diffusion times in Fo-rich olivines (88 to 92% Fo) vary from only a few months to years and thus magma ascent from deep magma sources must have been fast.