Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the highest volcano on Kamchatka Peninsula and also the highest among active volcanoes of Europe and Asia. There is a crater of 300 m in diameter on the top, the crater is very unstable morphologically. Moreover, beside this main crater the volcano bears about 80 minor side craters and cones.
Kliuchevskoi is a typical strato-volcano with the cone of regular shape. Its’ height varies from 4750 to 4850 and more meters above sea level. The age of the volcano belongs to Holocene Period, what is 7 thousand years approximately.
The eruptions, as past, as modern, take place through the main or side craters. The top crater is of funnel shape, time to time gets filled with lava and slag, when it happens a new cone begins to grow in the center, it sometime covers the edges of main crater and makes the height of the volcano more.
From the slope of Kluchevskaya Sopka one can see impressive panorama of the volcanoes Kamen, Krestovsky, Ushkovsky. The slag fields, hills, small volcanic cones create the illusion of Moon surface landscape.
The first climber of the volcano (1788) Danila Gauz wrote: "The crater continually throws out fire and flame, by day the flame is invisible, but in the night it can be seen clearly all around. On reaching at last the top of the mountain I could see crater in the whole, it was of almost triangular shape, being prolonged for one verst. The mid was filled with lava crust. It forms an eminence over the edge of the crater. It was seen on the sides of this lava mountain, beside the main crater, several huge howls, where from steaming and flames emerged. Inside the mount itself there was a terrible noise, as if it was trembling under feet. Dangerous evaporations smelted strongly with sulphur…"
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