Geochemical features of soil and plant cover in the zone of recent explosive volcanism

Geochemical specialization of the soil and plant cover has been revealed in the vicinity of the active Karymsky volcano (the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula), where the concentrations of most trace elements in the soil are lower than their clarkes but those in plants exceed their contents commonly recorded in living matter. Freshly deposited volcanic ash is enriched with movable forms of trace elements. As a result of hypergenic processes, they are dissolved and transferred to ground and surface waters, which accounts for a rich mineral composition of vegetation.