Taunshits (Russia)

Status Normal Eruption -550 2301m
Stratovolcano (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Taunshits volcano, located west of the massive Uzon caldera, is an andesitic stratovolcano that was constructed beginning about 39,000 years before present (BP) on top of a large Pleistocene tuya pedestal. The summit is truncated by a horseshoe-shaped crater breached to the west that formed about 8000 BP during an eruption producing a directed blast and a 3 km3 debris avalanche that traveled 19 km W. Another strong explosive eruption took place about 2500 BP. Two satellitic cones occupy the S flank, and a cluster of Holocene cinder cones farther to the south may also be related to Taunshits.

The western side of Taunshits, a large stratovolcano located west of the massive Uzon caldera, is breached by a large horseshoe-shaped caldera. The caldera truncates the volcano from its summit to its base and was formed about 8000 years ago during an eruption that produced a debris avalanche and directed blast similar to that at Mount St. Helens in 1980. A viscous lava flow (center) erupted after the collapse and descended across the breached caldera from a vent at the head of the collapse scarp.

Photo by Nikolai Smelov, 1998 (courtesy of Vera Ponomareva, Institute of Volcanic Geology and Geochemistry, Petropavlovsk).

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