Automobile tour to Tolbachik volcano (with the ascent of Flat Tolbachik volcano)

Short description

Route: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - Milkovo settlement - Tolbachik dale - Plosky Tolbachik volcano - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

A five days' trip into the heart of Kamchatka will let you look into the crater of one of the most interesting volcanoes of the peninsula, climb warm volcanic cones and walk on the lava field that appeared in the year 2013.

Additional information:

Ostry (Sharp) Tolbachik volcano (3682 m) and Ploskiy (Flat) Tolbachik volcano (3085 м) – two stratovolcanoes of Klyuchevskaya volcano group.

Great fissure volcanic eruptions (when the volume of lava, ashes and scoria exeeds1 km³) – is a rare natural event. They occur when magma flows up through cracks in the ground. Fissure eruptions are characterized by a curtain of fire, and by lava spewing out to a small height above the ground. Fissure eruptions can produce very heavy flows, though the lava is generally slow moving. In the historical period such great fissure eruptions were registered only seven times: twice in Iceland in 930 and 1783; twice in Mexico in 1759 and 1943; once on Canary Islands in 1730. The sixth and the seventh eruptions occures in Kamchatka in 1975 – 1976 and 2012 – 2013 in Tolbachik Dale.

The Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption (GTFE) bagan in July 1975 and continued till December 1976 and was the most voluminous eruption of basaltic lava and tephra since the 1783-84 Iceland eruption. About 2 cubic kilometers of material (more than four times the volume of the largest historic eruption of Mauna Loa) were erupted from two major vent areas in the Tolbachik regional zone of cinder cones, a fissure system extending more than 38 kilometers south-southwest of Ploskiy Tolbachik volcano. It resulted in the appearance of the so called Nothern and Southern breakthroughs. Activity at the Northern breakthrough was unusually violent for a basaltic eruption, generating a tephra-laden column 8 to 13 kilometers high that persisted throughout the development of three large cinder cones 330 m., 300 m. and 150 m. high as well as voluminous flows. In 17 months the landscape of Tolbachik Dale changed drastically: the vegetation was destroyed, rivers and lakes were covered by ash. It converted an area of about 400 km² into a lifeless desert.

According to seismic data on November 27, 2012 Tolbachik Fissure Eruption started. The eruption was named as "The Institute of Volcanology and Seismology 50th Anniversary Fissure Tolbachik Eruption" (FTE-50). It lasted almost 11 months until December 2013. В результате излияния лавовых потоков и стромболианской активности заметно изменился ландшафт Толбачинского дола — появились целые поля, представляющие собой нагромождения лавы высотой до 15 метров, продолжающие наращиваться за счёт новых прорывов.  The eruption started from two vents, named after eminent Russian volcanologists - Menyailov and Naboko vents, and after three days all activity concentrated in the lower (Naboko) vent. Three new lava fields were formed with a total area is about 36 km2. Two scientific bases had been destroyed by lava flows. The road to Tolbachinsky Dol was blocked..

If this trip is too long for you, we offer you to look through the shorter variant of the program.