Mount Elbrus

Mount Elbrus is an 18,510 foot inactive volcano located in the western Caucasus mountain range, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia, near the border of Georgia. Mt. Elbrus's highest peak is the highest mountain in the Caucasus, in Russia, and in all of Europe. Elbrus stands 12 mi north of the main range of the Greater Caucasus and 40 miles south-southwest of the Russian town of Kislovodsk. Its permanent icecap feeds 22 glaciers, which in turn give rise to the Baksan, Kuban, and Malka Rivers.

Elbrus sits on a moving tectonic area, and has been linked to a fault. Apparently, Elbrus has a "deep" supply of magma that resides underneath it. There are still more various signs of activity still present on the volcano, including solfateric activity and hot springs.

The lower of the two summits was first ascended on 10 July 1829 by Khillar Khachirov, a Kabardian guide for an Imperial Russian army scientific expedition led by General Emmanuel, and the higher (by about 130 ft) in 1874 by an English expedition led by F. Crauford Grove and including Frederick Gardner, Horace Walker, and Swiss climber Peter Knubel.