VOLCANOES – PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE AIR

MALY SEMIATCHIK

The turquoise blue of the crater lake in the Maly Semiachik volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, comes from the minerals that enter the water from corrosive volcanic gases at the bottom of the lake. They make the water highly acidic, with a pH value of less than 1. When the lake was first discovered in 1946, it had a temperature of 66 degrees centigrade. By 1970, it had cooled to between 30 and 35 degrees centigrade. The lake is believed to be 140 metres deep. Maly Semiachik, 1,560 metres high, is far from any settlements on the peninsula, which juts into the Pacific on the same latitude as Siberia. It is a several-day hike to reach it, or it can be visited by helicopter.

[ZOOM]
[INFORMATION]

[<< BACK]