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MALY SEMYACHIC VOLCANO

The Maly Semyachik is a short volcanic range of about 3 km length. It consists of 3 joined cones: the ancient north cone 1560 m, the middle cone with half-covered crater, and the south-west cone with the several craters (including the active Troitsky Crater).

Once there was an ancient volcano with the bottom diameter of about 20 km. About 17 thousand years ago the 15 km caldera formed in the result of explosive and collapsing processes. The arched ridge if the ruined Wall Volcano is located to the east from the actual volcano.

The Troitsky Crater was named after the member of many Kamchatka expeditions, V.D. Troitsky, who explored the Maly Semyachik Volcano. The crater is a deep oval funnel with 700 m depth with the lake at the bottom. The steep 200 m walls are composed of the interlaced layers of lava and tuff, which make the walls striped. The fumaroles sediment adds white, yellow and greenish colours.

The most prominent part of this interesting crater is the light-greenish lake. The colour is caused by the sulphur which comes up from underwater fumaroles. The temperature of the lake is 30-40o C. The diameter of the lake is about 500 m, the depth is about 140 m. The descend to the lake is possible only on the talus from the north side, which ends by the steep of about 20 m height. The belay is obligatory. The coastline in the descend place is covered by the blocks. The water is acid. When the volcanologists were exploring the lake in the rubber boat, they hardly came back to the coast - the aluminium blades were dissolved by acid. Water mineralization is too high, it is even higher than the salt content of sea water. The attractive green colour of the lake from afar disappoints being just turbid.

Only the Troitsky crater is active now. The local residents saw the “smoke” from the volcano in 1945-1946. It was later determined that strong emissions had enlarged the area of the crater lake on 8-10%.

There are six side cones at the bottom of the volcano. The tops of several cones end with rocks -nekks, lava cores which consolidated in channels.

The Maly Semyachik Volcano is a natural monument.