Kurile Lake
Kurile Lake (Russian: Кури́льское о́зеро, romanized: Kuríl'skoye Ózero) is a caldera and crater lake in Kamchatka, Russia. It is also known as Kurilskoye Lake or Kuril Lake. It is part of the Eastern Volcanic Zone of Kamchatka which, together with the Sredinny Range, forms one of the volcanic belts of Kamchatka. These volcanoes form from the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Okhotsk Plate and the Asian Plate.
| Kurile Lake | |
|---|---|
| Kurilskoe Lake, Kuril Lake | |
Kurile lake and the Serdce Alaida island | |
| Location | Eastern Range, Kamchatka Krai, Russia |
| Coordinates | 51°27′N 157°07′E |
| Primary outflows | Ozernaya |
| Catchment area | 392 km2 (151 sq mi) |
| Max. length | 14 km (8.7 mi) |
| Max. width | 8 km (5.0 mi) |
| Surface area | 76 km2 (29 sq mi) |
| Average depth | 195 m (640 ft) |
| Max. depth | 316 m (1,037 ft) |
| Water volume | 14.82 km3 (3.56 cu mi) |
| Surface elevation | 81 m (266 ft) |
| Frozen | March-April, rare in cold winter |
| Islands | 5 |
| Settlements | none |
Before the Kurile Lake caldera formed, the Pauzhetka caldera was active during the Pleistocene, and was the origin of the 443,000 ± 8,000 years old Golygin ignimbrite. The Kurile Lake caldera erupted 41,500 years ago, and another small eruption occurred between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago; then 6460–6414 BC a very large eruption took place, forming the present-day caldera and the Kurile Lake ignimbrite and deposited ash as far as 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi) away. This eruption has a volume of 140–170 cubic kilometres (34–41 cu mi), making it a VEI 7-class eruption and one of the largest during the Holocene. Subsequently, the volcanoes Diky Greben and Ilinsky grew around the caldera; the last eruption from Ilinsky was in 1911. The caldera is filled by a lake with an area of 76 square kilometres (29 sq mi), and a maximum depth of 316 metres (1,037 ft). The largest sockeye salmon stocks in Asia live in the lake.