"The Amazing World - Tolbachik"

It is impossible to tell about this place in one article. Anyone who has been here at least once knows what I mean. Tolbachik is an amazing world that will amaze any traveler, scientist, with its versatility, severity and beauty.

For several days we are in the vastness of central Kamchatka, and the mysterious volcanoes of the Klyuchev group (Ushkovsky, Krestovsky, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Stone, Nameless, Udina, Zimina, etc.) did not want to show!

And one day, when we went from the village of Atlasovo to the dead forest of the Tolbachik volcano, the famous giant volcanoes appeared to us in all their glory. We did not hurry, stopped at every part of the way, where it was possible to catch the top of Ostrogo Tolbachik in the frame, so only by dusk we reached the slag cones of BTTI 75-76g (Big cracked Tolbachik eruption).

A place for the night was not particularly sought and as a pair of rovers parked behind two slag cones.

The next morning, our expedition continued with a move to the famous dead forest. On the way, we visited the station helicopter, or rather what was left of it on the surface. A kind of reminder of who man is, even with his progress in the hands of the raging force of nature. During the BTTI of 1975-76, this helicopter was never destined to take off, and it was buried under a layer of slag and ash.

Many years have passed since the eruptions of Flat Tolbachik and the dead forest is gradually coming to life. Fresh greens appear, new life punches its way through lifeless dry soil. In the southern part of the dead forest, at the star station, we visited an amazing phenomenon formed by the eruption - caves. In the usual understanding of the cave of karst formation, in soft rocks. The situation here is quite different. Lava caves or tubes are formed when lava on the surface cools and inside still continues the movement of benches, forming whole labyrinths.

From the Zvezda station, we moved north to the Kleshnya base, from where we went on foot to the lava caves of the New Fissured Tolbachinsky eruption or as it is now customary to call the Cracking Tolbachinsky eruption named after the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the FEB RAS (Anniversary Tolbachinskoe eruption, TTI-50).

Walking along the most “fresh” lava in Kamchatka, feeling how it crunches like glass, is an extremely unusual activity. The gaze is aimed at the feet in search of interesting artifacts, pieces with interspersed various chemical elements.

On the new lava flow there are caves to which it is difficult to approach. There's a scorching heat coming from their bowels. In other caves there is cold and ringing silence. This is the kind of cave, two-tier type we visited. Part of the vaults crumbled recently, so we were extremely careful. We also want to give advice to future guests of lava tubes (cave): be as quiet as possible! The situation inside the lava tubes is not stable and excessive resonation to nothing.

The vaults of the cave are decorated with fragile in appearance, but the strongest in fact stalactites of frozen lava. Many of them have a bizarre shape, size. Without a helmet, you need to be extremely attentive, very sharp. The indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka used pieces of lava in everyday life for arrowheads, knives, butchering of the extracted meat. Returning to our cars, we moved to the station “Northern breakthrough”. Huge slag cones formed during the eruption of 1975-76, rise on the desert landscapes of the Tolbachinsky dol. Being there, at the foot of new volcanoes, it is difficult to judge their size, unless your group of tourists is on top of them!

Faced with the extreme dawn of this journey, a large, friendly team rallied in this place, we headed home. Having overcome the rampant Studenka River, we stopped again to capture the fundamental creations of nature, the volcanoes of the Klyuchevsky group. To say goodbye to them, that would come back here again with those who are just waiting for the secrets of the Tolbachik volcano.