Meet some Kamchatka geoscientists

Left to right:  Dima Savelyev, Artyom Gerus, Olga Savelyeva, Anna Dolgaya,
Olga Samoylova, Natasha Gorbach, Tanya Pinegina, Olga Bergal-Kuvikas,
Olga Usacheva.  Hidden in back:  Ilya Ulybyshev, Vlad Loginov

While visiting the Institute of Volcanology & Seismology [English version link] via an award from the U.S. Fulbright Foundation, I organized (with help) a weekly meeting of "young scientists" -- I defined "young" as younger than me.  It was a group who wanted to practice conversing, listening, writing and presenting in English.  As I have always done with my classes, I asked them to write a short introduction to themselves, with something about their work, their life outside work, and a picture or two.  I am always surprised by the diversity that turns up. You might note that women predominate in this group; you can read more about women in Soviet/Russian geoscience here.

Volcanologists/petrologists

Olga Bergal-Kuvikas with two of
 her children and a diploma
 from Hokkaido University

Olga Bergal-Kuvikas.  I first met Olga in Sapporo, Japan, in 2011. She was studying and working with volcanologist Mitsuhiro Nakagawa, who also was part of our Kurils Biocomplexity Project. Olga and I lived near eachother at Hokkaido University and commonly walked home together; we also skied together.  That was before she was married, and now she has three children.  Olga has quite a bit of practice with English and volunteered for our first presentation, based on a manuscript she has prepared on a Kamchatka Miocene caldera. She is a petrologist studying volcanic ash and rocks.  To the query "Where are you from?" Olga answered, "It’s a difficult question for me, because my father is from Lithuania, my mother from Moldova. They met and married in Kazakhstan. We came to ... Kamchatka in 1998, living  in Vilyuchinsk city. At Olga's invitation, I went with her and her two older boys to see Puss in Boots.

Natasha Gorbach does field work on Shiveluch volcano,
the northernmost of Kamchatka's active volcanoes -- very active!

Natasha Gorbach.  I also have known Natasha for awhile since she is one of (my long-time colleague) Tanya Pinegina's best friends; they have known eachother since they went to university together at Kiev State University. Like Tanya, she came to Kamchatka as a cub geologist and was drawn to its wildness, beauty and volcanoes.  Natasha worked for 8 years on the Kamchatka geological survey and then joined the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.  Natasha is a volcanologist/petrologist who works on recent and ancient volcanic products of Shiveluch volcano. This work links us because much of my field work on Kamchatka has involved Shiveluch's volcanic ash layers.  Natasha has traveled widely to share her studies and to do analytical work in other labs. This winter I helped her polish her poster for the European Geophysical Union meeting in Vienna, on the topic of recent eruptive products of Zhupanovsky volcano.

Aleksei Ragozhin with one of his scientific posters

Aleksei Ragozhin. Aleksei was born in Moldova; his parents left Moldova and flew to Kamchatka when he was very young. Aleksei's family lives in Milkovo, one of the few towns some distance from Petropavlovsk. He graduated from Kamchatka State University and started to work at IVS. He works on ancient calderas and is co-author of the aforementioned paper with Olga Bergal-Kuvikas.

Geophysical Mathematicians

Anna Dolgaya, who just
defended her Ph.D.!

Two of the most regular attendees of our group have been Anna Dolgaya and Artyom Gerus, who both work with Alexander Vasilievich Vikulin. Anna and Artyom are both natives of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy and both studied Mathematics and Informatics at Kamchatka State University.

Artyom Gerus plays base
 guitar in a rock band.

     Anna Dolgaya's research area is mathematical and statistical modeling of regularities of seismic and volcanic processes, including earthquake migration. She works with a database of catalogued earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that have occurred all over the Earth; she also is working on a broader database of global catastrophes.  Anna gave two presentations to our group.  She also announced to us at our last meeting that she had successfully defended her Ph.D. (which she kept a secret) -- congratulations!  In Anna's spare time, she likes reading and cross-stitching; she also watches U.S. TV series and recommended (to me) House of Cards, which I subsequently watched in my flat in the evenings.  One wonders how the world sees the United States if through these TV serials.

     Artyom Gerus performs geodynamical modeling. I will use his words: " [We] consider that the crust (in particular, along ... geodynamically active zones ...) consists of blocks (usually associated with earthquake focal areas) with intrinsic angular momentum which is responsible for stress propagation [along chains of blocks] ... in the form of waves that sometimes trigger earthquakes...." As pictured above, he plays base guitar in a rock band; he is also interested in sound engineering, both recording and mixing other local musicians and doing some live sound engineering.

Magnetotelluricists

Olga Samoylova

We had three young scientists from the IVS magnetotellurics -- Olga Samoyleva, who was instrumental in organizing our group, Vlad Loginov and Ilya Ulybyshev.  Magnetotellurics (MT) is a ... "method for inferring the Earth's subsurface electrical conductivity from ... measurements of natural geomagnetic and geoelectric field variation at the Earth's surface .... Proposed in Japan in the 1940s, and France and the USSR during the early 1950s, MT is now an international academic discipline and is used in exploration surveys around the world." (Wikipedia). Magnetotelluricists collect field data along profiles and then invert those data to reconstruct subsurface character and structure.
     Olga Samoyleva is working on the deep conductivity of Kamchatka's eastern coast, including the chain of active volcanoes and the subduction zone. Coastal areas are challenging because of differences in conductivity between sea water and rocks. Her hobbies are very active physically, including running, skiing, yoga and Argentine tango.

Some of the modes of Ilya Ulybyshev.

    Ilya Ulybyshev is working working in the lab of tectonics and geophysics of island arc systems at the Institute. The subject of his research is magnetotelluric sounding of Central Kamchatka, and he gave us a presentation about collecting field data both for his project and for related work.  Ilya is a man of many interests and talents, including baking ginger snaps (in the shape of a crab) for our final meeting. He is part of an amateur singing group; here is an example performance.  He has done some pottery and lately took up painting scale miniatures from sci fi and fantasy.

Geologists

Dima (Dmitry) Savelyev is a talented
geologist and photographer

   I was very excited to learn that not only were Dima Savelyev and Olga Savelyeva field geologists, but they have worked extensively on the Kamchatsky Mys Peninsula (KMP), where I have spent quite a bit of my field time and focus.  KMP is where the Aleutian chain runs into Kamchatka, where we have worked on uplifted marine terraces and on long records of tsunami deposits.  Olga is a stratigrapher (like me); Dima works more on igneous rocks, including old, accreted seafloor.  They are a working, married team, with three children.  Dima has published a photo album online and presented me with a hard copy.

Savelyev family photos

     Dima studied mineral exploration in Moscow and spent his first decade on Kamchatka conducting field and lab studies in mineral exploration, geologic mapping, hydrogeology, and other geotechnical projects. Since 2002 he has been at IVS in the petrology lab studying paleovolcanology, petrology and geodynamics, with a focus on ancient island arcs. He presented an abstract to us on the link between ancient igneous rocks on Kamchatka and Hawaiian igneous rocks – the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain runs into Kamchatka currently at the Kronotsky Peninsula.

Olga Savelyeva with rhythmically bedded Cretaceous rocks
on the Kamchatsky Mys Peninsula.  I had to pick this photo
because I love sedimentary rocks, and I have seen related beds.

     Olga Savelyeva is a geologist after my own geology heart; she studies Cretaceous sedimentary rocks -- in particular their rhythmic patterns of deposition and its relationship to global climatic and oceanic trends and events in the Cretaceous. As did Dima, Olga graduated from the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute, and before coming to Kamchatka, she worked on a geological survey in Eastern Pamir.   In addition to her work at IVS, she teaches Paleontology, Historical Geology, Geology of Russia and other topics at the local university. She likes walking on the beach and in the forest, knitting, and growing flowers and vegetables. She likes waterfalls, rocks (!) and pine trees.

Seismologist -- last but not least!

Seismologist Anna Skorkina

     Anna Skorkina made a brief appearance in the group in midwinter and then was based in Moscow for a couple months, rejoining us in our last month and making not one but two presentations. Anna went to Perm (not Penn) State University and now is a Ph.D. candidate at the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth in Moscow, while also junior researcher at Kamchatka Branch of Geophysical Survey RAS in Petropavlovsk. She also has training as a professional translator. Anna has been active in the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, which has given her travel, training and networking opportunities. Her research is focused on studying spectral properties of Kamchatka earthquakes and high-frequency radiation of the source. One of her presentations was on different earthquake magnitude scales and how to calibrate local scales with the moment magnitude (Mw) scale.
     Anna spent some time working at the Kamchatka tsunami warning center, which was developed after the Sumatra 2004 earthquake and tsunami. She offered to give us a tour, after a short presentation on the center as well as the network of tsunami warning centers in the Russian Far East. Four of us went on the tour (others had been before), where Anna demonstrated the training tools for determining whether to issue a tsunami warning after earthquake signals are received. It was cool!

Here we are -- Artyom Gerus, Anna Dolgaya, Anna Skorkina and me (plus Dima Ototiuk, Head of Regional Processing Center "Petropavlovsk" which is one out of three RPCs working for Tsunami Warning System in the
Russian Far East)visiting the Kamchatka tsunami warning center.  Anna S. shows us how to evaluate
whether or not an earthquake will be tsunamigenic

At our final meeting, I gave a talk about (asteroid) impact-generated tsunamis, and my new friends prepared tea and cookies. I hope we all stay in touch and that I will visit Kamchatka again and catch up on what everyone is doing. And of course I welcome any of you to visit me in Seattle!

Bogged down and bushwacked on Kamchatka

As the snow has melted, I find myself bogged down and bushwacked (19 May 2017).

When the explorer and journalist George Kennan (1845-1924) joined a reconnaissance expedition in the mid-1860s to survey a possible telegraph line from North America to Europe via Siberia, there was a reason they concentrated their overland travel in the winter.  This journey is chronicled in a highly readable, at times very entertaining account by Kennan, Tent Life in Siberia.  Don't let the title fool you -- their team spent most of their time on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Here is an interesting blog about the overland telegraph effort

http://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2016/03/where-there-be-no-roads/

Last Friday, 19 May, was the last day I managed to travel on the Avacha marathon ski trail via skis.  I had to take off my skis a few times to cross dirt patches, and I knew I would have to turn around once I reached a big, swamped marsh.  At the end of the day, near the main road at low elevation and with a southern exposure, I broke through snow into a muddy puddle and gave up on my skis.  Saturday it rained, Sunday was very windy, and Monday blustery.  By Tuesday, I was stir crazy... 

End of the ski trail -- it's swamped!

I took my trekking poles and decided to walk from the city to Lesnaya, the area (and beyond) where we have been skiing all winter.  I found a back street for some distance of the way; it was quite ugly in the near field with discarded debris as well as everyday litter melted out of the snow.  If I looked up, there were the snow-capped volcanoes -- Petropavlovsk is basically an ugly city in gorgeous surroundings. The second half of this 40-minute trek was along larger roads, noisy and dirty -- maybe if I knew the city's geography better, there was a more pleasant way to go, but at least I didn't get lost.

Once at Lesnaya, I wasn't sure what to do -- try to follow a melted-out ski trail (I was wearing hiking boots)?  Take the gravel road that led to some dachas?  For starters, I headed across the ski-area's open field, which was mostly low dead grass, and I only encountered a little mud.  But the ski trails from there up the hill looked too snowy, so I took a low trail over to the biathlon stadium, where I knew there was a maze of asphalt trails (which we had skied in snow in the winter), designed for summer sports such as biking and roller skating.  When I arrived at a fork where the ski trail went right and the asphalt left, up a steep hill, I saw there was a birch-forested slope I could go up instead!

All winter we had skied through birch forests as if we were a breeze.  I forgot that the snow covered various shrubs -- ryabina (mountain ash) on south-facing slopes, kedrach (shrub pine) on cooler spots, wild rose in drier spots and willow in wetter spots -- the willow thickets are usually separate from the birch.  And the floor on which these woody plants grows was a tangled mat of last year's tall grasses and flowers. So I found myself bushwacking --not as bad as many previous Kamchatka experiences, but what a shock after flying through the forest on skis.

After I thrashed up the hill, I punted and went out onto the asphalted trail, which was very serpentine, up and down, good exercise, surrounded by birch forest with some great views -- the city, its bay, and Viluchinsky volcano -- and in the other direction Koryaksky and Avachinsky volcanoes.  But this trail never gets too far away from the stadium area, and thusI could hear the incessant hum and roar of the main-road traffic.  I had a healthy walk and took the bus home.

Wednesday also dawned clear, cool and breezy.  It seemed a shame to take a bus to go for a walk, but I wanted to get out of the city, away from the dirt and noise, so take a bus I did.  At the Lesnaya stop, I had more decisions--repeat the prior day's trek?  Walk up the gravel road?  I decided I wanted the quickest route to escape the traffic noise, so I headed up the gravel road... but a few cars passed, and it was dusty, so... I veered onto the "zdorovye" (health) (ski) trail.  

What was I thinking...  I had worn teva-type hiking sandals (with socks) because my boots were pinching.  The first few hundred meters were mostly dry "road", but then of course there was lots of mud and melting snow and...  giant puddles and broad willow marshes.  I quickly gave up keeping my feet dry (the sandals are designed to get wet) and kept going, trying to stay in grassy marsh rather than muddy muck.  Some places were ok; sometimes I could veer onto a low ridge with birch and its underlying brush.  What was I thinking...   but I had navigated enough marsh and muck not to want to turn back, and I kept thinking it might get better; I sat on a stump and had a snack and thought about ... bears.  Before Tanya left last week, we talked about my taking a "bear flare" -- we use signal flares to scare bears away.  But I didn't.

I came to the spot on the trail where the gas pipeline crossed, and I thought I could take the primitive pipeline road till it crossed the gravel road I knew would take me back.  But the pipeline road devolved quickly into another quagmire.  So -- I figured my best bet at this point was to take the (ski) trail to Severo Vostok, a suburb of Petropavlovsk.  This trail also was a mess, partly because some stupid (drivers of) motorized vehicles had really mucked it up.  But I was not far from Severo Vostok, and from there I could walk on streets and find a bus.  I was mucking along when to my left I saw someone on a trail!  I veered over, and there was a footpath in birch forest, on which I soon saw bunches of people -- some headed out to collect wild garlic (cherem sha), some picnicking, some walking dogs...  it took me easily to a bus stop.

LESSONS (RE-) LEARNED:

1) This was the vez dihod that was supposed to take us to our base camp in 2005.
It turned out not to be amphibious, and we got swept into the Mutnaya River.
Called a helicopter...  photos by Bre MacInnes.  In the left picture, I am wearing
rezinovye sapogi (hip boots)

1) Skis, snowshoes, reindeer sleds and dogsleds don't work when the ground is not frozen and snow-covered.  The best overland (motorized) vehicle in this case is a wonderful Russian machine called a "vez dihod" ("goes anywhere") -- they are even amphibious except when they are not...

2) Wear rubber boots -- they are your "go anywhere" ticket.

2) [and I knew this...]  If you go hiking on Kamchatka in the summer season (with possible exception of on volcanoes), your best footwear is "rezinovye sapogi" (rubber boots), of the hip-height variety.

3) Don't travel overland -- go by air or find a water route!

3) Put your vehicle on a ferry; find a river to float down; if you can afford it, take a helicopter.

Cherem sha! Eating wild plants on Kamchatka

Mostly what I remember as a child was being afraid of the possible poisonous nature of wild plants [I do remember collecting black walnuts from the tree up behind my grandma's house].  That all changed when I started working in the field on Kamchatka.

I did not go skiing yesterday in order to pick cherem sha -- two activities that are basically mutually exclusive.  I was on my last day of lowland skiing, knowing today it would rain heavily.  After a long, wonderful day of classic cross-country on snowy trails as well as nearly snow-barren ground that had been thick with snow through April, I broke through a snow bridge into a big puddle, and that was the end of my skiing.  As I removed my skis and cleaned them up, I noticed green shoots poking out of the ground on the side of the trail -- was it? It was!  --cherem sha, aka wild garlic, or ramps.  I became so enthralled with my gathering that I almost missed the last bus back into town, leaving behind hugs patches of cherem sha.

19 May 2017 on the Lesnaya sport ski trail (snow
patch in distance).  Snow retreats, wild garlic advances!

I first learned about cherem sha on a wayward backpacking trip in June in the early 2000s.  It was to be a recreational trip to Nalichevo hot springs, with a trail along the Perevalnaya River. But we -- my friend Sasha Storcheus (RIP) and I -- started on the wrong side of the river, crossing a bridge we should not have crossed, and wandered the back country for three days.  I had packed typical American-style backpacking food, mostly dehydrated, including "soyevo myasa" (dried soy meat).  I carried a liter of water, Sasha carried none because Russians don't, especially when the hike is planned along a river valley.  Instead we spent much of the day on a dry ridge, descending into a dry valley.  That's when I learned about birch sap.  Sasha took his axe (Russians always have an axe), slashed a birch, put a piece of grass into the slash and dripped sap into a cup.  We went on to camp in a wetter spot, and as I prepared supper, I said I wished I had brought some condiments, and Sasha pulled up some cherem sha that was within reach of the campfire, and our soy meat became much tastier.  Finally, on our way back down the trail, we came across paparotnik -- fiddlehead ferns, and I collected a bunch which Sasha taught me how to prepare once back in town.

Beach pea http://arcadianabe.blogspot.ru/
2014/09/beach-pea-elusive-edible.html

Cherem sha is the first to sprout up in the spring and can be found in cool spots at least into July.  I remember a salad we made of cherem sha leaves when we were at Mutnaya Bay.  We had salt and oil, and a squeezed lemon had washed ashore from a nearby ship, and we managed to get some lemony flavor out of it for our salad.  The other "local salad" that's common in our field is morskaya kapusta, (literally sea cabbage) -- a kind of kelp, Laminaria.  I remember the first time I had it, in our 1998 field at Soldatskaya Bay, prepared by Vanya Storcheus.  A third potential salad ingredient is the beach pea (Lathyrus japonicus) -- the name for pea in Russian is "gorokh," but we always just call this "beach pea."  Mostly we just shuck the peas on the spot and eat them, but occasionally we bring some back to camp to add to soup or salad.  There has been some question about edibility of beach peas; unless they are your staple diet, they are not dangerous.

Puchka grows really tall.  This picture is from the web:
http://s.fishki.net/upload/post/201506/30/1581387/getimage.jpg

A food I haven't eaten but which has been used as a food staple by indigenous peoples is the bulb of the local lily, sarana or saranka.  Another of their commonly used plants, puchka (Heracleum dulce) we have on occasion cooked and eaten--the stems are are celery-like. Puchka is one of bears' favorite vegetables.  It is also commonly our nemesis in the field, especially on sunny days -- its leaves produce a phototoxic chemical -- a reason you have to cover your skin while bushwacking and hiking amongst tall plants, even wearing gloves.  I tend to stomp it down in front of me--take that, puchka!  Only once I got a burn on my shin when we had a "vacation day" and I wore pedal pushers around camp. I have heard others' horror stories, though.

A fire-blackened teapot with a compote mix of
rose hips (shipovnika), ryabina (mountain ash), and a
few blueberries (I think golubika but many zhimolost')
photo by Bre MacInnes, 2005 Mutnaya Bay

If I maintain a relatively seasonal narrative, I should mention that the fresh tips of kedrach (Pinus sibirica) a shrub pine, are edible and supposed to be good for you.  I've tried them, I'm not a big fan. And kedrach is terrible to bushwack, it pariticularly challenged us in south Kamchatka.  On the other hand, in the autumn, kedrach cones generate wonderful pine nuts.  Another shrub with an edible part is a wild rose whose species name I thought I knew (Rosa nootkatensis) until I read this.  In any case, I was told early on that rose petals from this rose make a good jelly/jam, but I never have been successful making it, so instead, in the field, I commonly just pluck the leaves and eat them--especially good when spotted with dew; careful to exclude insects...  This is another plant that have an autumn bonanza, in this case, rose hips, which are collected by locals for winter tea and vitamin C.

What's left (in my incomplete knowledge) are two giant categories -- berries and mushrooms/fungus (the latter including chaga).  Each one deserves its own write-up/blog (not to mention fish, fowl and meats), especially my absolute favorite brusnika, so I will just write about that one for now, after a short introduction to other berries.  In order of appearance/ripeness, in my experience the first berries we can pick and eat are shiksha, or crowberries -- another staple of indigenous diets, not very sweet or tasty, though with ripeness they are better; make excellent ingredients in berry pancakes, when that's all you have.  Next come blueberries, I can't determine which first, but the first I picked were zhimolost', a blimp-shaped blueberry with a fabulous taste and a deep purple stain; the other is golubika, a low-growing, classic-appearing blueberry [note that my experience is mostly coastal].  In the peat bogs, relatively early, you can find maroshka, known to us as cloudberries; they are ripe when they become pale pink-yellow, from a darker red-orange, and they taste a bit like yogurt or ice cream.  A late bog berry is, of course, the bog cranberry, kliukva -- I only managed to harvest kliukva once in a September field in Soldatskaya Bay, 2003.  Another later berry is ryabina, or mountain ash -- not particularly edible but can be used in jams and compote; commonly quickly gets riddled with bugs; grows in bunches that bears just trim off the bushes, including really near my tent one year.  Most of these berries are familiar in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, especially Alaska, but I was surprised that Kamchatka does NOT have salmon berries.

These brusnika are not quite ripe...
photo by Bre MacInnes

Finally, my favorite brusnika -- best known in the western world by its Swedish name lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea).  It is also called "low bush cranberry" and a bunch of other names, it grows in tundra-like conditions, including on our old beach ridges.  It ripens in the late summer, and you have to pay attention, because it can look red above and still be quite green on the underside.  A deep red is what you are looking for.  

Bre with fresh brusnika,
inset of freeze-dried version

And/but if you are lucky earlier in the summer, you can find brusnika "freeze-dried" from the previous year -- I remember at least a couple times where there were enough naturally freeze-dried brusnika that we could collect them to share or to cook with; they can be a bit fermented, which is fun, too.   Brusnika have a flavor akin to bog cranberry but more intense.  When freshly picked, they have lots of pectin, so the only decent thing to do is add a little sugar, bring to a boil (no water!) and eat by the spoonful with tea.  Second best is to do the same and put on bread or pancakes or in blini -- with smetana (sour cream, which we don't have in the field), omg.  Brusnika freeze well and are commonly available in markets here in Petropavlovsk, so I am enjoying them here this winter.

Kamchatka -- "island" cuisine

There are a number of reasons to "eat local" including 1) to support local agriculture and organizations, 2) to minimize one's (carbon) footprint, and 3) to lower the part of one's food budget that goes to transportation costs. Those who live in remote places know how expensive "imported" food can be.

Kamchatka is essentially an island.  There are no roads north toward Chukotka (which is itself is even more remote); there is no railroad.  So you and everything else either arrive by boat or by air --typically airplanes from Magadan, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Moscow,...  The Trans-Siberian railroad terminates in Vladivostok.  Ships can bring goods from there.

Kamchatka is at the upper right corner of this map, far from any trains...
http://www.guidetorussia.com/images/trainmap_transsib.gif

And, of course, Kamchatka is no tropical island, so...  given that I did not grow my own food here last summer, what can I buy at the store or at a kiosk that's "local"?  [Summertime, and in the field, are two different topics.]  I am not sure that everything I buy here in winter is actually grown on Kamchatka, but here are the basics of the products that could be.

Root vegetables!  A staple of higher-latitude diets and can be kept in root cellars -- potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, garlic.  Plus cabbage, from which you can keep stripping outer leaves as winter goes by.  I have yet to make borsch (not sure why not!), the most common soup in Russia and which uses all these ingredients; but most every soup I have made starts from the list minus beets (and not always garlic).

Pickled, dried or frozen summer/fall produce, of which the most common are what we in the US typically just call "pickles" -- cucumbers (agourtsi); I have a jar of pickled tomatoes right now.   Frozen berries, and mushrooms are common; many locals would have gone mushroom hunting in the summer/fall and dried or pickled some for winter.  Same for paparotnik (fiddlehead ferns) and potentially cherem sha (wild garlic, aka ramps).  Many will have made their own jams in the summer/fall, and/but there is a local company that is producing fabulous local jams, the brusnika (lingonberry) varenyi is to die for.

Added in 2020--here is a great article about Russia, tomatoes and Paul Robeson

Dried herbs I mostly buy in envelopes, and likely they are not local, but I can buy fresh dill and parsley and a few other greens that are grown here on Kamchatka, in greenhouses heated by hot springs (e.g., from the village of Termalni).  Not enough winter sun for hothouse tomatoes, though.

Dairy products -- milk (moloko), yogurt, kefir, sour cream (smetana), tvarog (something like a dry cottage cheese), butter.  Tanya helped me identify the dairy products that are local; also, I can check labels myself, I read enough to be able to see the place a product is from.  The fresh milk only keeps a few days, which of course is one reason why other products like sour cream are common, and very common in cuisine.  I typically keep a back-up box of ultra-pasteurized milk on hand -- reading the labels I think most of them come from Krasnoyarsk region.  You can get from 1.5% up to 6% milkfat in these boxed milks!  I do not know of a non-fresh cheese produced on Kamchatka.

Of course, FISH and other seafood products, of which salmon is the most common.  Prices for these items have risen as Kamchatka exports more to other parts of Asia, as well as back to western Russia. Right now I have some locally produced pelmyeni (ravioli-like) in my freezer which are stuffed with salmon and calmari.  All kinds of smoked salmon and other dried fish.  I know all the Russian words for salmon (losos), better than I know the US words -- chavuicha (king), nyerka (the other red one), keta (chum?), gorbusha (pink, humpy), ...  If you like red caviar (kryasni ikra), which I do, that's very available.   Fish is best bought in specific fish markets, not at the supermarket.

Bread and many wonderful pastries and other bread products are locally made, but far as I know, the flour is not local, though almost certainly from Russia.  The flour I have on my shelf is from Kurgan, Russia.  Tanya showed me how to find the more traditional loaves of Russian bread, which is fab.

Chicken, eggs and pork are locally produced.  Beef is not, is a luxury in general, and is not common in local diets.  Lamb is used, e.g., for shashlik (kebabs), I am not sure how much of it is local. There is a local company (Agrotek) that produces many kinds of "kielbasa," a term used here for most cured, tubular meat products.  Another dish that uses lamb traditionally is "plov" (pilaf) -- the influence of the Caucasus region on cuisine is notable; Shamsa makes and sells its own lavash (flatbread).

Another strong influence on local cuisine is Korea -- many Korean refugees and immigrants have come to the Russian Far East, at least since WWII.  I am not a fan of kimchee, but you will find an amazing variety of kimchee for sale in large and small markets and in kiosks.  At the supermarket, there is an aisle of Asian specialty products.

Water -- the tap water here is excellent, I have not purchased bottled water, but if/when I do, I will buy Malki -- Malkinskoye, from a spring in central Kamchatka.  I was appalled some years ago when the supermarket put up a prominent display of Aqua Fina.

So--what else do I have in my kitchen and diet, and where is it from?

Fresh fruit -- I have bought apples and mandarin-orange types.  Should I buy apples from Belarus and Moldova or from China?  China is closer in this case.  So far, I have paid less attention to origin and mostly looked for apples that might be crisp and have flavor, it's been hit or miss.  The mandarins I have purchased, which are tasty, quite seedy and thus not very expensive, are from ... Pakistan!

Coffee--I brought a bunch of Starbucks and just bought Italian-roasted beans.  Coffee snob.
Tea -- Tea is the traditional hot drink of choice in Russia, mostly grown elsewhere, but there is a whole aisle of teas at the supermarket, and there are specialty shops for tea.

Chocolate and other confections--Russia has a long tradition of producing chocolate and chocolate sweets, likely stemming originally from French influence.  Chocolate confections are a major shopping/gift item for Russians, as are "confyeti" -- hard candies.  I "buy Russian" and my favorite chocolate and confections come from the two oldest makers in Russia -- Babayevski and Red October (Krasnii Oktyabr), the latter of which started in the 19th century but was renamed after the revolution.

Grains.  The most traditional grain in Russia is "grechka" which is commonly called "kasha" in the US, but "kasha" in Russian means more or less all grains.  Grechka is buckwheat groats, which are roasted for a flavor I haven't succeeded in finding in the U.S.  Besides potatoes and grechka, I have rice in my pantry; I am not sure of its history/source; its package mentions manufacture in Chelyabinsk, but it has English and many other languages on the box (yes, I bought a box).  I despair at finding decent pasta in Russia, despite the claim on some packages that it is from Italy, with all the right other words. [note added in 2020 -- more choices now, and not bad pasta, not great.]  I also have a muesli-like cereal mix that's Russian in origin.  Russians in general do not like oatmeal, it's just for little kids; when you grow up, you eat grechka.

Sugar is likely to be sugar-beet sugar.  The most common cooking oil is from sunflower seeds and is too strong for my taste.  Sunflower seeds show up in many confections, and toasted seeds in the shell are a typical outdoor "snack" with the seed coats spit out all over the place...  Halvah made from sunflower seeds is more common than from sesame seeds, but sesame confections are not uncommon, another influence of the "middle eastern" region of the Soviet Union.  Nuts are expensive here; I put some walnuts in my morning cereal, and I have a homesick "splurge" jar of peanut butter -- from China.

The recent dust-ups with the European Union and the U.S. have made products from those areas less available and more expensive.  I have some parmesan cheese from Italy, some olive oil from Spain, and the aforementioned pasta and coffee.

Alcoholic beverages.  I also have bought some wine from Italy and from New Zealand, quite overpriced for quality.  I have not seen U.S. wine this year, it used to be in the bigger shops.  Local?  Kamchatka makes great beer and has some local vodka production, including from birch sap.  I've had some moonshine here on occasion, mostly in the field.  Traditionally, the wine Russians drank was "polusladki" -- half sweet, mostly from Moldova; some drier wines have been available from Georgia.  "Champagne" is commonly a drink of choice for celebrations (and if you eschew vodka); the best cognac not way out of price range comes from Armenia.

Let me know if you have questions.  I'll write another blog some time about how and what we eat on our field excursions.  And in the summer/fall on Kamchatka, there are many wonderful "domashni" (home grown) products, and I've done quite a bit of berry and mushroom picking myself.

Avachinsky Volcano

From the International Space Station  ISS 2 May 2011 Avachinsky
Oblique view from south of Avachinsky active (left) and inactive Kozelsky (right)

Saturday 25 February 2017 ski trail from Lesnaya to foothills of Avachinsky.  Tanya Pinegina skiing, JB photo.

Saturday we skied to the foothills of Avachinsky volcano (“Avacha”), the active stratovolcano just north of Petropavlovsk.  Indeed, much of the city of Petropavlovsk sits on an extensive volcanic debris flow from the cataclysmic eruption of old Avacha about 30,000 years ago.  Truck-sized rocks from this debris flow emerge from the local park near our Institute and lie along the ski trail.

2010 winter view toward north of Koryaksky (left) and Avachinsky (right) from our office window at the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Far East Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (JB photo)

Avacha's nearest neighbor, to the east, is Kozelsky, which is part of the Avacha complex.  To the west looms Koryaksky volcano, which is much less active than Avacha in Holocene times (last ~12,000 years). Active volcanoes, if conical, tend to have smooth flanks, as does the young Avacha cone, whereas Koryaksky is deeply incised by erosion, as is Kozelsky.  In all my years visiting Kamchatka, I have had innumerable views of these volcanoes, though almost always from the south side.  18^th century navigators identified their approach to the narrow opening of Avacha Bay by the “three volcanoes” they could see from afar. 1851 crest of Kamchatka, to the right:

I did find a picture (above) in my scanned collection of an aerial shot I took from the north in summer of 1996 (note there is a large cloud that is not a mountain!).  It is easier from the north side to see that the active cone of Avacha lies within the much larger, former edifice of old Avacha.  The one time I was on foot on the north side, I could see Avacha’s and Koryaksky’s more intensely glaciated northern flanks.  On our way toward the pass between the two, we made the mistake of getting too high too fast and ended up crossing active moraines and debris-covered glacier snouts.  Not fun. 

Avacha has a long record of historical eruptions:  (2001), 1991, 1945, 1938, 1926, 1909, 1901, 1894, 1881, 1878, 1855, 1854, 1853, 1851, 1828, 1827, 1779, 1772 and 1737.  [The largest historical eruptions are in bold italics, the next largest set in bold; data from Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program based on work by Kamchatka geoscientists (references there) In the Smithsonian catalogue, Avacha is volcano 300100.  This photo (left, by Oleg Volynets) is from the 1991 eruption.  

From these data, as well as from analysis of surrounding topography and of the prehistoric record, Institute geologists have prepared a volcanic hazard map for Petropavlovsk and the surrounding area (map above).  These hazards include lava flow, pyroclastic flow, debris avalanche, eruptive blast, debris flow, mudflow (lahar) and volcanic ash/cinder fall.  For most of these, being farther away and higher is safer, but ash falls are primarily directed by winds at the time of eruption, so their primary direction can be quite variable.  Link to the above map.  Legend for this map

The cinder and ash (tephra) deposits from historical eruptions have been used by Tanya Pinegina (tsunamis) and Lilia Bazanova (Avacha volcanic history) to help map out not only the tephra layers themselves, but also to use these layers to identify and map historical tsunami layers above and between them.  Their work has helped to determine which of Kamchatka’s historical earthquakes were the largest and most tsunamigenic. Such analysis is particularly important because the shorelines where the historical ash layers fell are also the ones closest to Kamchatka’s center of population (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatksiy on the map below).  I participated in some early phases of this work at Khalaktirka beach, where we could map out the tsunami deposit from the 1952 Kamchatka great earthquake because it lies almost directly above the 1945 Avacha ash layer.  To the right is a picture of Lilia (lower left) and Tanya (above) documenting some of the many Avachinsky tephra along a stream cut near Khalaktirka beach.        
Lilia Bazanova with her colleagues Olga Braitseva and others have also worked out a long prehistoric record of eruptions of Avachinsky volcano.  Given its historical record, it is not surprising that Avacha has generated volcanic debris deposits and/or mappable tephra layers every couple of centuries or so – the record is more difficult to tease out the farther back in time because the layers are obscured by plant roots, weathering and other soil processes.  Several of these layers record eruptions larger than any of the historical ones, including an eruption that sent ash as far as Ust’ Kamchatsk (see map below).  We use layers from these eruptions to work out the prehistory of tsunami deposits and their generating earthquakes.  That is “paleotsunami” analysis—I had to get the word paleotsunami in here because that’s in the name of my blog!

One could certainly get the impression from the pictures thus far posted here that Avachinsky is one big snow cone. However, I found this picture by Vera Ponomareva to show just how un-snowy it can be by end of summer. Vera constructed a website about Kamchatka volcanoes hosted by the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Climbing Avachinsky:  I was with a group of tsunami scientists, visiting Petropavlovsk in the summer of 1996, who attempted to climb Avacha on a windy, rainy day.  We failed miserably, not least because many of us were not really prepared for such a climb, despite the valiant cheerleader guide we had, Elena Sassorova.  More about these women geoscientists at this blog post.  On a perfect day in the summer of 2000, finally I succeeded in summiting, guided by Sasha Storcheus.  The cindery cone was frozen as we ascended in the morning and soft when we descended. I don’t have digitized photos of that climb—I was surprised to see the lava pool at the top and to see fresh sulfur deposits.

Photo left:  2004 by JB.  Photo right: on Tolbachik by Pavel Isbekov. 

Tragically, on 3 March 2013, our dear friend and colleague Katya Kravchunovskaya was one of three mountaineers who died while trying to help a lost tourist in a snowstorm on Avacha.  We miss her terribly.

Кот в сапогах -- Puss in Boots

Édition_Curmer_(1843)_-_Le_Chat_botté
 via Wikipedia

About a week ago, Olga invited me to join her and her two boys for a performance at the Petropavlovsk theater of

Кот в сапогах , Sunday 19 February at 11 AM.  

I happily agreed.  

Saturday was a day of intense wind and snow.  I still have no idea how much snow fell because it was rearranged so much by the wind into bare spots (old snow) and drifts -- a drift blocked the front door of my building, but someone had worked it open before I went out.  I woke up early on that Sunday morning and evaluated the scene as best I could, determining whether our theater excursion would proceed.  The wind had died down and the snow had mostly stopped falling.  My windows and eaves were impressively drifted.

My ktichen window Sunday AM

The eave of my balcony Sunday AM

We had a rendezvous spot at "6 km", near a large flower shop. Petropavlovsk is arranged in mostly linear fashion along the shore of Avachinskaya Guba (gulf or bay), and the locations along the main road are identified by their distance from the central post office.  The Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, as well as my flat, are located at "9 km" -- the bus terminal is at "10 km" which is also the location of the big Shamsa supermarket.  My other go-to shopping area is "8 km."

I determined to walk to our rendezvous -- that is, about three kilometers.  The main street was clear, and buses and traffic were running fine.  I tried to balance dressing for the theater with negotiating pedestrian walkways that went from cleared, to half-cleared to narrow steps to non-existent.  I wore snow boots and pants that would shed the snow.  Sometimes the walk is near the street and sometimes "inland" a bit, closer to shops.  I wished I had my walking poles, but managed not to fall, it's generally easier, in any case, to walk on snow than on the old ice that lay under it in many spots.  I arrived just about right on time, and we went to catch a bus.

Olga and her boys in front of the grand
"Kamchatka Theater of Drama and Comedy"

The boys were well dressed for snow, as were all the children I saw entering the theater.  I watched in fascination as all the snowsuits were shed and children transformed into little princes and princesses.  I did not get good pictures of those transformations before or after the performance. There is a huge coat/clothes check, clearly needed in this season. Once we left that area, though, I could hardly believe that it was a winter wonderland outside, children and parents--especially girls--dressed in flouncy, light outfits.

We were there in plenty of time to look around the theater, and we considered getting some second breakfast at the buffet, but decided to wait till after.  We looked in on the pre-theater scene, where groups of children were enjoying treats. Then we went up another level, where boys and girls were racing back and forth in a grand, wooden-floored lobby.  Good to get some physical energy out before the performance! 

groups of children enjoying a pre-performance treat at the
Kamchatka Theater of Drama and Comedy

It fascinates me to watch kids in settings like this theater, or the zoo, or a playground.  I am reminded of Lily Tomlin's character explaining to her space chums the difference between "soup" and "art", that is, the difference between a can of Campbell's soup and Andy Warhol's depiction of said can.  She later takes them to a theater performance, where her space chums decide that the audience is "art" and the performance "soup."  That is, they love watching the audience.  You must read this book. Wagner/Tomlin The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

Of course the performance was in Russian...  As I watched, and enjoyed the performance as well as the audience, I realized that I should have "read the libretto" before coming to the theater.  This morning I read a short summary of the original story, which comes from the Italian "Master Cat, or The Booted Cat" (Italian: Il gatto con gli stivali; French: Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté) (from WIkipedia).  The English translation "Puss" seems a bit... feminine, whereas this cat is a swashbuckler -- ok, let's not get into feminist issues here....  In Russian, a male cat is "kot" and that is the word used for the Russian version "Kot v sapogakh"   A dinimutive used for female cats is "koshka" -- more like "puss" to me.  I guess I should try to find out the history of translation... later.  

After the performance, groups of children were brought up on
stage to receive gifts for their participation

The performance was very energetic, of course, geared for kids.  They were most engaged when there was physical comedy, including early on, Kot's acquisition of his boots by someone throwing them, one at a time, from offstage, where Kot had clearly annoyed someone.  There was singing (taped and lip-synched) and lots of dancing.  The Kot was of course the star of the show.  At the point where Kot is trying to convince the King that his (impoverished) master is the lord of a large estate (which Kot has tricked away from an ogre), he enjoins the children to yell out his name as the owner of all the lands they are passing through.  The kids did a great job.



In previous visits, I have been to this theater for performances by a Russian men's choir, by indigenous groups of Kamchatka, and by singers of the "bard" tradition.  Now that I have been with Olga and her boys, I think I will make more of an effort to go again.  But Olga says the St. Petersburg ballet performance is already sold out.  You have to know what's going on and how to plan ahead; clearly music and dance are easier for me to appreciate than drama and comedy.  But next time, I'll "read the libretto."

After the performance we went for a walk in Petropavlovsk center.  All the fresh snow was beautiful.  The center has many historical buildings and monuments.  More on them another time.

Costumes on display in the theater.

Here I am in my semi-practical theater outfit.
Besides this, I had only a rain-type parka,
hat and gloves (checked at the theater),
It was snowy but not cold out.

Here are Olga and her boys at the theater.  

This is the entry lobby, with huge coat check to the right.
 Not a great shot, but you can see some of the various levels of kids outside and inside dress.

This is the February 2017 schedule for the
Kamchatka Theater of Drama and Comedy