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The success of recently developed geological and geophysical methods and technologies for monitoring of mud volcanoes in the Kerch-Taman region is eventually based on the fundamental scientific results accumulated at the turn of the century under the overall leadership of the Academician E.F. Shnyukov. The results of geological and geophysical studies of the Mount Karabetov mud volcano (Taman Peninsula) featuring the passive seismoacoustic sounding method are presented. New data on the spatial configuration of subvertical fluid-saturated structures associated with the volcano's feeding system were obtained. Subsequent common interpretation of the geophysical data and the results of the structural-geomorphologic observations allowed one to formulate a consistent hypothesis on the possible deep mechanism of mud volcanic activity responsible for the mostly paroxysmal nature of eruptions of the Mount Karabetov.

Most mud volcanoes are located along large tectonic zones within the Alpine and Central Asian folded regions, the Pacific mobile belt and rift regions of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. One of the basic conditions for the functioning of the mobile crust of mud volcanic processes in the earth's crust is the location and creasing into folds of the complex of sedimentary formations. It is these geological conditions that determine the activity of many mud volcanoes within the Kerch-Taman mud volcanic province, including the mud volcano Shugo. Long-term studies of the phenomenon of mud volcanism, carried out under the guidance and with the direct participation of Academician Ye.F. Shnyukov created the fundamental foundations of a geological and geophysical approach to a deeper understanding of the conditions of formation and mechanisms of activity of the volcanoes of the Kerch and Taman Peninsulas. This work is devoted to the results of seismological and geoacoustic studies of the Shugo volcano, expanding our ideas about the features of the deep structure of the studied object and contributing to the further development of the ideas of the outstanding scientist, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Ye.F. Shnyukov.