Tao-Rusyr Caldera, Onekotan Island, Kuril Islands, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia
Latitude: 49.35°N 49°21’0″N
Longitude: 154.70°E 154°42’0″E
The huge Tao-Rusyr caldera on southern Onekotan Island is one of the most spectacular volcanoes of the Kuril Islands off the southern tip of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The 7.5-km-wide caldera was formed about 7500 years ago during a catastrophic volcanic eruption, one of the largest Holocene eruptions in the Kuril Islands. Today, the basaltic-to-andesitic ancient Tao-Rusyr Caldera is filled by the deep blue waters of Kal’tsevoe Lake, whose surface is 400 m above sea level.
A large symmetrical post-caldera cone, 1325-m-high andesitic Krenitzyn Peak, forms a 4-km wide island that towers high above the caldera rim and fills the NW portion of the caldera lake. A 350-m-wide, 100-m-deep crater truncates the peak and a large lateral crater is located on the upper NE side.
The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired this true-color image of southern Onekotan on June 10, 2009. In this late-spring shot, snow or ice lingers on the land, forming white streaks on a brown-and-green land surface. In the northwest quadrant of the caldera is Krenitzyn Peak, which rises to a height of 1,325 meters (4,347 feet).
Like the other Kuril Islands, Onekotan lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Kuril Island volcanoes are fueled by magma generated by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Eurasian Plate, which takes place along a deep trench about 200 kilometers (120 miles) to the islands’ east. The only historical eruption at Krenitzyn Peak occurred in 1952, a week after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake along the subduction fault.
NASA Earth Observatory image created by Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey. [Additional information from GVP. Edited by FEWW]
A large symmetrical post-caldera cone, 1325-m-high Krenitzyn Peak, forms a 4-km wide island that towers above the rim of 7.5-km-wide Tao-Rusyr caldera. A 350-m-wide crater caps the peak, and a large shallow lateral crater (left center) is located on the upper NE flank. The small dark mass along the eastern shoreline (right-center) is a lava dome that was emplaced in 1952 during the only historical eruption of the volcano. Kal’tsevoe lake fills a caldera that was formed about 7500 years ago during one of the largest Holocene eruptions in the Kuril Islands. Photo by Oleg Volynets (Institute of Volcanology, Petropavlovsk). Caption: GVP.
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