Geology Picture of the Week, Aug. 31 - Sep. 6, 2008: Kronotsky Volcano; Geyser valley update

Russian Nature Photography ^ | Igor Shpilenok

[cogitator]

A two-pronged post. One, I learned that some people think that Kronotsky volcano in Kamchatka is the most beautiful volcano in the world. Judge for yourself:

Two, near Kronotsky was Kamchatka's Valley of the Geysers, which had quite a few geysers. In June 2007, a landslide buried a lot of the valley. What I didn't know until looking up Kronotsky is that the natural dam that was formed by the landslide breached a few days later, draining much of the water that had flooded the valley, and many of the geysers reappeared.

The story is below and a picture from the story shows that these geysers are respectable.

Kamchatka's Geyser Valley reopens to tourists

[cogitator]

Here's another one from Shpilenok, probably pre-landslide:

[cogitator]

** ping **

[itsthejourney]

Christmas card beautiful.

[cogitator]

For those still reading along, I went back and looked at Igor Shpilenok's site. It's very high-quality. His pictures of the Kronotsky park are wonderful. See below. Many of them probably show what the Valley of the Geysers looked like before the slide; I'd be curious to see images that I knew were after the slide for comparison.

Kronotsky Zapovednik

[OneVike]

I’m of the opinion that God could drop a meteorite on Russia and turn the whole country into a prehistoric hole in the ground. Then I would look at the pictures and be pleased.

In my lifetime I have seen more atrocities around the world, and more death directly or indirectly caused by this evil country then any other part of the world.

I have no reason to think we need to help this backwards society get any publicity for its tourism. Besides they would just use the money they get from us and use it for terrorism.

I’d rather go to Jellystone Park, and listen Yellowstone Sam tell me about the muddy poties the white man put in the pristine Indian land of make believe.

[GATOR NAVY]

Looks like Mayon Volcano in the Philippines with snow.

[cogitator]

Looking one more time, I found a link (under "About Igor") that shows what happened to the Valley of the Geysers. Summary: several geysers were lost, but the "best part", with the stained glass wall and a couple of the larger geysers, survived. Nature happens.

Valley of the Geysers: What Actually Happened

Stained Glass Wall