Sulfur combusts on contact with air to create stunning blue lava-like rivers of light in the Kawah Ijen crater on the island of Java.
This blue glow—unusual for a volcano—isn't, of course, lava, as unfortunately can be read on many websites.The glow is actually the light from the combustion of sulfuric gases.Those gases emerge from cracks in the volcano at high pressure and temperature—up to 1,112°F (600°C). When they come in contact with the air, they ignite, sending flames up to 16 feet (5 meters) high.Some of the gases condense into liquid sulfur,which continues to burn as it flows down the slopes giving the feeling of lava flowing. Forest fires in Yellowstone National Park have caused similar "rivers," as heat from the blazes melted the sulfur around hydrothermal vents.Blue volcanic fire was described in antiquity in Italy on the south slope of Mount Vesuvius and on the island of Vulcano.There was no use of any filters to capture this images of the blue fire. The burning happens day and night, but it's visible only in darkness.
Kawah Ijen Crater Lake is green because of the hydrochloric acid in the water.
Kawah Ijen Crater Lake, at the top of the volcano, is the world's largest such body of water filled with hydrochloric acid. In fact, it's the acid that makes the water green.
The volcano emitted hydrogen chloride gas, which reacted with the water and formed a highly condensed hydrochloric acid with a pH of almost 0.
In the Kawah Ijen crater, sulfuric gases escaping from cracks ignite as they come in contact with the air.
A river of sulfur flows near Kawah Ijen's acid lake.
When Grunewald photographs Kawah Ijen, he wears a gas mask as protection against toxic gases, including sulfur dioxide. "It is impossible to stay a long time close to a dense acid gas without a mask," he said.
Pallister described the miners' daily routine as "tough duty." He has seen many of them using only wet cloths as gas masks.
Some of the miners do have gas masks that visitors have given them, said Grunewald, but they "have no money and no opportunity to change the filters."
"I feel bad for these miners," Werner said. When she and her colleagues work in Indonesia, "we usually bring gas masks and leave them there with the people we work with, because sometimes they don't know that what they are breathing is harmful."
In Ethiopia's Danakil Depression, the sulfur dust in the soil of a hydrothermal vent ignites to form blue flames.
Grunewald has also documented the blue glow on the Dallol volcano in the Danakil Depression, in the Afar region of Ethiopia near the borders of Eritrea and Djibouti.
The heat of magma sometimes ignites the sulfur dust in the soil, forming flames of electric blue.
"It is very rare to see that," said Grunewald. "The powder of sulfur could burn for a few days."
The depression is geologically active, with hydrothermal vents and sulfur springs, some of which are tourist attractions.
The Afar region is famous for having the world's highest average temperature of 93°F (34°C), thanks in part to the volcanic activity.
Source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
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