Klyuchevskaya Sopka

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Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the highest mountain on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The volcano's steep, symmetrical cone towers are a mere 100 km (60 miles) from the Bering Sea. The volcano is part of the natural UNESCO World Heritage Site Volcanos of Kamchatka.

Klyuchevskaya's first recorded eruption occurred in 1697, and it has been almost continuously active ever since, as have many of its neighboring volcanoes. First climbed in 1788 by Daniel Gauss and two other members of the Billings Expedition. No other ascents were then recorded until 1931, when several climbers were killed by flying lava on the descent. As similar dangers still exist today, few ascents are made.

Klyuchevskaya Sopka is considered sacred by some indigenous peoples, being viewed by them as the location at which the world was created. Other volcanoes in the region are seen with similar spiritual significance, but Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the most sacred of these. It is said that when the god Volkov created the world, this was the point at which he held it, and so it remains unfinished, unsealed, thus the volcanic activity.

Space radar image of Klyuchevskaya Sopka

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