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KSUDACH VOLCANO

It is a shield volcano with 1079 m height and the bottom diameter of 35 km. In the result of the central part depressing the prolonged 7x9 km caldera was formed. The external slopes are very low-angle, the internal slopes are steep. The bottom of the caldera is two-leveled and is divided into two almost equal parts. The west part and the east part which is 100-200 m lower than the west one. The west part is bent to the caldera centre and is cut by gullies, the east part is covered by lakes.

The viscous lava massif rises in the south – the Lava Dome. It ends with 100 m steep near the Klyuchevoe Lake blocking the coastline with rocks. There is the same massif in the north – the Vapouring Bench. Its east part ends near the lake by almost vertical rock leaving just the narrow zone of sand coast. Sometimes the fumaroles come out at the top of the massif and from the cracks in the walls.

The last in the north is the Stubel Crater named after the famous German volcanologist Alphons Stubel. This crater erupted in 1907. This 1300-1500 m oval crater is located on the small cone and is filled by the waters of the Stubel Lake. The cone crest steeply breaks inside by 200 m wall and comes down to the water. There are cracks along the break. Sometimes rock blocks fall down into the lake along the cracks. To the north-east the walls height descends, and the crater lake joins with the Nizhneye Lake by wide channel. Before the eruption of 1907 there was no crater, only the dome was instead of it. But during the eruption it was exploded, crushed and thrown away at the angle of 30-40° the north. Its volume was 0,5-1,0 km³.

There are two lakes in the eastern part of the caldera - the Kluchevoe Lake and the Nizhneye Lake. The Kluchevoye Lake is prolonged, its size is 4x2 km. It is surrounded by steep ridges of 400-500 m height. It doesn’t have open drainage, and the water is filtered through the dam that divides two lakes. The length of the Nizhneye Lake is about 2 km. The Teplaya river comes out of the lake through the caldera ridge; evidently, the river has once been warm. In 1 km from the river head there is the 10 m waterfall.

There are Ksudach (Stubel) Hot Springs near the Paryashchy bench bottom at the narrow sand coast. There are no permanent baths because they are swept by the breaking wave, but it’s not difficult to dig a hole in the warm sand. But the water is too hot, and one has to mix it with the cold water from the lake. 70°C water discharge is observed along the coastline for 250 m. Hot water also comes up from the lake bottom, and in winter the coastline of the lake doesn’t freeze.