The Klyuchevskoy volcanic group (KVG) is a cluster of 13 closely spaced stratovolcanoes, situated at the northern end of the Kamchatka volcanic arc, where it coincides with the Aleutian Arc. Klyuchevskoy volcano at its centre is one of the most active in the world, erupting on average 1 cubic metre of rock per second over the last 10000 years. Many international flight routes cross the Kamchatka peninsula, where eruptions from volcanoes of this group occasionally spew ash and particles into the air. Between August 2015 and July 2016 an international research team conducted the KISS experiment during which a temporary network of 83 seismographs (largely provided by the GFZ GIPP) was installed to investigate what drives the unusually high volcanic activity in this region. Data from the temporary stations, combined with a permanent monitoring network, are now available to investigate the volcanic and tectonic seismic sources, the structure and its temporal changes as well as magmatic processes within the volcanic group. The recorded data is archived at GFZ's GEOFON seismological data center to facilitate the data access and research activities including a number of geophysical approaches pursued at the partner institutions and performed by further collaborators.

Time frame

• 2015 - 2019

Funding

• GFZ - Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ
• RSF - Russian Science Foundation

Principal Investigators

• Chr. Sens-Schönfelder (GFZ Potsdam)

Personnel

• R. Green (GFZ Potsdam)

Partner

• N. Shapiro (IPGP Paris)
• I. Koulakov (IPGG Novosibirsk)
• E. Gordeev (IVS Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky)
• D. Chebrov (KBGS Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky)

Research Unit(s)

• RU2- Plate Boundary Systems
• RU4- Natural Hazards

Publications

• Shapiro, N. M., C. Sens-Schönfelder, B. G. Lühr, M. Weber, I. Abkadyrov, E. I. Gordeev, I. Koulakov, A. Jakovlev, Y. A. Kugaenko, and V. A. Saltykov (2017), Understanding Kamchatka’s extraordinary volcano cluster, Eos, 98, doi.org/10.1029/2017EO071351. 01 May 2017