Vernadsky Ridge

About Vernadsky Ridge

The Vernadsky Ridge on northern Paramushir island in the northern Kuriles is a large massif with over 40 volcanic centers in three volcano groups each ~7-8 km apart. The active Ebeko complex is at the N end, with the Bogdanovich group in the center and the Vernadsky group towards the S end. The latter two groups were considered to have been active in the Holocene by Gorshkov (1970). A geological map in Belovezhets et al. (2023), modified from Melekestsev et al. (1993) and State Geological Map (2001), identified Holocene lava flows from the Bogdanovich, Krasnuhk, Kozyrevsky, and Krasheninnikov cones in the central group, and from the Bilibin and Vernadsky cones in the southern group; these were also previously mapped by Gorshkov (1970). No eruption dates are known. A shear-wave seismic velocity model by Belovezhets et al. (2023) identified one "low-velocity anomaly at the depth of 4–6 km associated with magma reservoirs, which is overlaid by a prominent high-velocity anomaly representing the rigid cover" below the southern and central ridge, separate from that below Ebeko.