Chirippusan [Chirip] (Japan - administered by Russia)

Status Unknown Eruption 1860 1587m
Stratovolcano(es) (Subduction zone / Intermediate crust (15-25 km))

Chirippusan (also simply Chirip) volcano is on the Chirip Peninsula, jutting NW-ward into the Sea of Okhotsk from central Iturup Island. It is constructed of twin overlapping Holocene stratovolcanoes, Kitachirippusan on the north and Minamichirippu (also called Bogdan Khmelnitskii) on the south overlie a pre-glacial volcano, rising above a 1100-m-high saddle to 1561 and 1587 m, respectively. Lava flows from both edifices are truncated by a large, 4-km-wide depression on the west side of the peninsula. Basaltic rocks dominate at both volcanoes over basaltic-andesite and andesitic products. Kitachirippusan has a shallow summit crater, partially filled by a small lake, that has fed lava flows down all sides; satellitic cones are located on the northern flank. Lava flows from Minamichirippusan reach the coast on both the east and west sides. Only two 19th-century eruptions are known in historical time, the last occurring in 1860 from a vent SE of the summit of Minamichirippusan.

The Chirip Peninsula, jutting NW-ward into the Sea of Okhotsk from central Iturup Island, is constructed of twin overlapping Holocene stratovolcanoes. Bogdan Khmelnitskii volcano (center) lies at the southern end of the peninsula, and Chirip volcano (in the background left of Bogdan Khmelnitskii) forms the northern end. Lava flows from Bogdan Khmelnitskii (also known as Minami-Chirippu or South Chirippu) reach the coast on both the east and west sides of the peninsula.

Photo by Alexander Rybin, 2001 (Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics, Yuzhno-Sakhalin).

Last updated 2019-08-04 00:28:03