The largest Plinian eruption of our era and the latest caldera-forming eruption in the Kuril-Kamchatka region occurred about cal. A.D. 240 from the Ksudach volcano. This catastrophic explosive eruption was similar in type and characteristics to the 1883 Krakatau event. The volume of material ejected was 18–19 km3 (8 km3 DRE), including 15 km3 of tephra fall and 3–4 km3 of pyroclastic flows. The estimated height of eruptive column is 22–30 km. A collapse caldera resulting from this eruption was 4 × 6.5 km in size with a cavity volume of 6.5–7 km3. Tephra fall was deposited to the north of the volcano and reached more than 1000 km. Pyroclastic flows accompanied by ash-cloud pyroclastic surges extended out to 20 km. The eruption was initially phreatomagmatic and then became rhythmic, with each pulse evolving from pumice falls to pyroclastic flows. Erupted products were dominantly rhyodacite throughout the eruption. During the post-caldera stage, when the Shtyubel cone started to form within the caldera, basaltic-andesite and andesite magma began to effuse. The trigger for the eruption may have been an intrusion of mafic magma into the rhyodacite reservoir. The eruption had substantial environmental impact and may have produced a large acidity peak in the Greenland ice sheet.

Изучены петрографические, минералогические и геохимические особенности К-трахиандезибазальтов побочного извержения 2012–2013 гг. вулкана Плоский Толбачик. К-трахиандезибазальты имеют явные признаки надсубдукционного происхождения. Это глубоко дифференцированные породы, характеризующиеся значительным фракционированием плагиоклаза. Изучение радиогенных изотопных отношений Sr, Nd и Pb в К-трахиандезибазальтах свидетельствует об их мантийном происхождении и отсутствии влияния земной коры на их составы. Проведен сравнительный анализ отношений содержаний некогерентых элементов в К-трахиандезибазальтов,внутриплитных,рифтогенных и островодужных умереннокалиевых базальтах и андезибазальтах к содержанию этих элементов в примитивной мантии. Геохимические особенности К-трахиандезибазальтов позволяют отнести их к надсубдукционной субщелочной формации калиевого ряда.

The origin of calc-alkaline high-alumina basalts (HAB) of the Klyuchevskoy volcano, Kamchatka, was examined using electron microprobe analyses of phenocrysts and mineral phases included in the phenocrysts. Continuous trends on major-element variation diagrams suggest the HAB were derived from high-magnesia basalt (HMB) by fractional crystallization. Phenocrysts in the HAB are strongly zoned: olivine (Mg# 91–64), clinopyroxene (Wo45–38En40–51Fs5–20) and chrome—spinel/magnetite inclusions in them (Cr2O3 45–0 wt.%, TiO2 0.5–11%). Microprobe analyses of minerals included in the phenocrysts provide additional constraints on the mineral crystallization trends in the HAB. Fe/Mg partitioning data, when applied to the phenocrysts cores, show they crystallized from a HMB. The similarity of phenocryst core compositions in HAB with those in HMB strongly suggests a genetic relationship between the two magma types.