SPELEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF KAMCHATKA OBLAST

In September 1996 I spent 8 days in Kamchatka Oblast of Silberia, speaking at the institute of Volcanic Geology and Geochemistry in Petropavlovsk and participating ina field excursion to the 1740 and 1975 lava beds of Tolbachik volcano. By international standards, the caves of these flows are small. But recently it has appeared that variations in chemistry and gas content of pahoehoe basalts makes profound variations in their lava tube caves. Thus it is important to look at as many speleoliferous regions as possible. This trend continued at Tolbachik.(omitted)