Der Geologe Karl von Ditmar erkundete von 1851 bis 1855 im Auftrag der russischen Regierung die Bodenschätze Kamčatkas. Dabei erforschte er das Land und seine Bevölkerung aber weit über diesen Autrag hinaus, was seine eindrucksvollen Reisebeschreibungen zeigen. So verbrachte er im Sommer 1853 als erster Forscher längere Zeit bei den Korjaken auf der Halbinsel Tajgonos. Der 1900 erschienene zweite Teil seines Werkes enthält die systematische Darstellung der Natur und der Geschichte Kamčatkas sowie ein geografisches Lexikon.

The sources of geothermal energy of Kamchatka are hydrothermal systems, local blocks of high heated rocks, and peripheral magma chambers of active volcanoes in particular. According to gravimetric, magnetic and seismic data, under the Avachinsky volcano there exists an anomalous zone which is suspected to be a peripheral magma chamber. It is localized at the boundary of the Upper Cretaceous basement and an overlying volcanogenous stratum at a depth of 1.5 km from sea level. Its geophysical data are as follows: the radius is 5.2±0.9 km; the density of rocks is 2.85 to 3.15 g/cm3, the velocity of longitudinal waves is 2200 m/sec, the viscosity of rocks is 105 to 108 poise. The temperature distribution in the near-chamber zone was calculated by clcctrointegrator at 0°C at the Earth's surface and 1000°C at the chamber surface for stationary and non-stationary (the period of 20 000 years) heating. Heat extraction may be possible if a system of artificial jointing iscreated. The capacity of a thermal reservoir with a volume of one cubic km at a depth of 5 km and a distance of 6 km from the volcano would be 2 x Ю14 kcal, extractable under non-stationary conditions, which could provide the work of power stations with a total capacity of 250 MW for a period of 100 years.

The results of geological and geophysical studies, including recent ones, which make it possible to verify the existence of a liquid magma chamber below the Avachinsky volcano on Kamchatka, and to estimate the chamber depth and approximate dimensions, are analyzed. The heat stored in the host rock heated by the volcanic magma chamber from the time of chamber origination to the present is estimated, taking variable chamber dimensions during the process of evolution into account. The geological-geophysical prerequisites for using the thermal energy of the heated rock which surrounds the magma chamber to supply heat and power to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii are analyzed. The creation of an underground geothermal circulation system (fracture heat exchanger) using deep boreholes is proposed.

There are 30 active volcanoes in the Kamchatka, and several of them are continuously active. In the XX-XXI centuries 17 volcanoes of Kamchatka erupted. During this time, 183 volcanic eruptions occurred, including three catastrophic eruptions (Ksudach, 1907; Bezymianny, 1956; Sheveluch, 1964). Strong explosive eruptions of volcanoes were the most dangerous for human society because they produce in a few hours or days to the atmosphere till 2-3 cubic kilometers of volcanic products. Ash plumes and the clouds, depending on the power of the eruptions, the strength and wind speed, to traveled thousands of kilometers from the volcanoes for several days. Any territory of the Kamchatka Peninsula has repeatedly been exposed to ash falls, the thickness of ash in settlements was from less than 1 mm to 4-5 cm. Strong explosive eruptions of volcanoes Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, Bezymianny, Kizimen, Karymsky, Zhupanovsky, Avachinsky, Kambalny were the most dangerous for air travel not only over Kamchatka, but also hundreds of kilometers away from the peninsula.
The strong explosive and effusive eruptions of Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, Bezymianny, Kizimen and the other were often accompanied by the formation of hot mud flows (lahars), which sometimes disrupted transport communications (roads, bridges) of nearby settlements.
Scientists of KVERT monitor Kamchatkan volcanoes since 1993. Thanks to satellite monitoring of volcanoes carried out by KVERT, several explosive eruptions were predicted in the XXI century, and early warnings were made to the population about possible ashfalls in settlements and about hazard to aviation.

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.

In 2024, explosive eruptions of the Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, Bezymianny, and Karymsky volcanoes occurred at Kamchatka, and the Ebeko volcano at the Northern Kurile Islands. On April 26, 2024, a new lava dome, named after the 300 years of the Russian Academy of Sciences began to grow in the area of the Karan old dome on the Stary Sheveluch volcano western slope. Powerful explosive eruptions that destroyed the new dome were observed on August 17–18, September 1–2, and November 7–10, 2024: eruptive columns rose up to 11 km above sea level, ash plumes extended for 2400 km mainly to the northeast and east of the volcano. The summit explosive eruption of the Klyuchevskoy volcano lasted from December 27, 2023 to January 2, 2024: explosions send ash up to 7 km above sea level and ash plumes extended for 230 km to the northwest of the volcano. The paroxysmal explosive eruption of Bezymianny volcano occurred on July 24, 2024: the eruptive cloud rose up to 12 km above sea level, the eruptive and coignimbrite clouds moved, respectively, to the northeast and northwest up to 2500 km from the volcano. The Bezymianny eruption forecast, which was published on the KVERT website, was realized 39 h 40 min later. Explosive activity of the Karymsky volcano was observed from June 20 to November 12, 2024: explosions raised ash up to 6 km above sea level and ash clouds moved for 665 km, mainly to the east and northeast of the volcano. In 2024, 287 explosive events occurred on the Ebeko volcano with ash removal up to 4.5 km above sea level. During the explosive eruptions, the Sheveluch and Bezymianny volcanoes were dangerous for international and local air travel and the Klyuchevskoy, Karymsky, and Ebeko volcanoes were dangerous for local air travel.

The Volcanoes of the World database is a catalog of Holocene and Pleistocene volcanoes, and eruptions from the past 12,000 years.

Temporal irregularity of the output of volcanic material is studied for the sequence of large (V ≥ 0.5 km3, N = 29) explosive eruptions on Kamchatka during the last 10,000 years. Informally, volcanic productivity looks episodic, and dates of eruptions cluster. To investigate the probable self-similar clustering behavior of eruption times, we determine correlation dimension Dc. For intervals between events 800 and 10,000 years, Dc ≈ 1 (no self-similar clustering). However, for shorter delays, Dc = 0.71, and the significance level for the hypothesis Dc < 1 is 2.5%. For the temporal structure of the output of volcanic products (i.e., for the sequence of variable-weight points), a self-similar “episodic” behavior holds over the entire range of delays 100–10,000 years, with Dc = 0.67 (Dc < 1 at 3.4% significance). This behavior is produced partly by the mentioned common clustering of event dates, and partly by another specific property of the event sequence, that we call “order clustering”. This kind of clustering is a property of a time-ordered list of eruptions, and is manifested as the tendency of the largest eruptions (as opposed to smaller ones) to be close neighbors in this list. Another statistical technique, of “rescaled range” (R/S), confirms these results. Similar but weaker-expressed behavior was also found for two other data sets: historical Kamchatka eruptions and acid layers in Greenland ice column. The episodic multiscaled mode of the output of volcanic material may be a characteristic property of a sequence of eruptions in an island arc, with important consequences for climate forcing by volcanic aerosol, and volcanic hazard.