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-Eight strong eruptions of four Kamchatka volcanoes (Bezymyannyi, Klyuchevskoi, Shiveluch, and Karymskii) and Chikurachki Volcano on Paramushir Island, North Kurils took place in 2007. In addition, an explosive event occurred on Mutnovskii Volcano and increased fumarole activity was recorded on Avacha and Gorelyi volcanoes in Kamchatka and Ebeko Volcano on Paramushir Island, North Kurils. Thanks to close cooperation with colleagues involved in the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) project from the Elizovo Airport Meteorological Center and volcanic ash advisory centers in Tokyo, Anchorage, and Washington (Tokyo VAAC, Anchorage VAAC, and Washington VAAC), all necessary precautions were taken for flight safety near Kamchatka.

Ammoniovoltaite, (NH4)2Fe2+5Fe3+3Al(SO4)12(H2O)18, is a complex hydrated sulphate of the voltaite group that has been recently discovered on the surface of the Severo-Kambalny geothermal field (Kamchatka, Russia). Vibrational spectroscopy has been applied for characterization of the mineral. Both infrared and Raman spectra of ammoniovoltaite are characterized by an abundance of bands, which corresponds to the diversity of structural fragments and variations of their local symmetry. The infrared spectrum of ammoniovoltaite is similar to that of other voltaite-related compounds. The specific feature related to the dominance of the NH4 group is its ν4 mode observed at 1432 cm−1 with a shoulder at 1510 cm−1 appearing due to NH4 disorder. The Raman spectrum of ammoniovoltaite is basically different from that of voltaite by the appearance of an intensive band centered at 3194 cm−1 and attributed to the ν3 mode of NH4. The latter can serve as a distinctive feature of ammonium in voltaite-group minerals in resemblance to recently reported results for another NH4-mineral—tschermigite, where ν3 of NH4 occurs at 3163 cm−1. The values calculated from wavenumbers of infrared bands at 3585 cm−1, 3467 cm−1 and 3400 cm−1 for hydrogen bond distances: d(O···H) and d(O···O) correspond to bonding involving H1 and H2 atoms of Fe2+X6 (X = O, OH) octahedra. The infrared bands observed at 3242 cm−1 and 2483 cm−1 are due to stronger hydrogen bonding, that may refer to non-localized H atoms of Al(H2O)6 or NH4.

Large explosive eruptions of volcanoes pose the highest hazard to modern jet flights, because such eruptions can eject as much as several cubic kilometers of volcanic ash and aerosol into the atmosphere during a few hours or days. The year 2016 saw eruptions on 5 of the 30 active Kamchatka volcanoes (Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, Bezymianny, Karymsky, and Zhupanovsky) and on 3 of the 6 active volcanoes that exist on the North Kuril Islands (Alaid, Ebeko, and Chikurachki). Effusive activity was observed on Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, Bezymianny, and Alaid. All volcanoes showed explosive activity. The large explosive events mostly occurred from September through December (Sheveluch), a moderate ash emission accompanied the entire Klyuchevskoy eruption in March-November, and explosive activity of Karymsky, Zhupanovsky, Alaid, and Chikurachki was mostly observed in the earlier half of the year. The ash ejected in 2016 covered a total area of 600000 km 2 , with 460000 km 2 of this being due to Kamchatka volcanoes and 140000 km 2 to the eruptions of the North Kuril volcanoes. The activity of Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, and Zhupanovsky was dangerous to international and local flights, because the explosions sent ash to heights of 10-12 km above sea level, while the eruptions of Bezymianny, Karymsky, Alaid, Ebeko, and Chikurachki were dangerous for local flights, since the ash did not rise higher than 5 km above sea level.