We have identified, and describe in this paper, a phase of multifactor natural catastrophism that has been the greatest during our era in Kamchatka, to be dated 0-650 A. D. Its chief components were. The last catastrophic eruptions to have occurred (a caldera-generating one at about 240 A. D., the pyroclastics volume being 18-19 km3 and a subcaldera one around 600 A. D. with the volume of lava and pyroclastics 9.5-10.5 km3) which were followed by irreversible relief changes over areas of hundreds of square kilometers and have affected rather injuriously many other environmental components. An exceptionally intensive activity of the other volcanoes (at least 75-80% of all active and potebtially active Kamchatkan volcanoes were erupting, tens of large and catastrophic eruptions occurred). Regional catastrophic and large ashfalls. A sharp, large-amplitude (between 1.5-2 and 12-15 m) tectonic uplift of various blocks in Kamchatka. Large earthquakes accompanied by large-volume rockfalls, landslides, large and frequent tsunamis. The catastrophic events of that time are argued to have been part of a worldwide phase of natural catastrophism that we hypothesize to have occurred at the beginning of our era.

The article provides an algorithm for recovery of parameters of ash emissions (total volume and its height distribution) during explosive eruptions. The solution for the corresponding inverse task uses a multiple regression approach with minimal a prior information on the eruption dynamics. As an example, we consider a strong explosive event at Bezymianny Volcano, Kamchatka, on 24.12.2006. The estimations showed that the mass distribution for ash emission with heights was partially controlled by the emission of ash material inside the clouds from pyroclastic flows. This peculiarity was revealed as a bimodal distribution of the emission mass with maximums at the mid tropospheric and low stratospheric heights.