Posted on 09/16/2015 10:26:35 AM PDT by JimSEA
Blue Flames and a Blue Acid Lake
Indonesia's Kawah Ijen Volcano, on the island of Java, has two of the most unusual occurrences on Earth. The first is an active solfatara that emits hot, flammable sulfurous gases. These ignite as they enter Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere and burn with an electric blue flame. Some of the gas condenses in the atmosphere to produce flows of molten sulfur that also burn with an electric blue flame. The flames are difficult to see during the day but illuminate the landscape at night.
The second occurrence is a one-kilometer-wide caldera lake filled with turquoise blue water. The color of the water is a result of its extreme acidity and a high concentration of dissolved metals. It is the world's largest highly acidic lake with a measured pH as low as 0.5. The cause of its acidity is an inflow of hydrothermal waters charged with gases from a hot magma chamber below.
(Excerpt) Read more at geology.com ...
Why am I thinking the movie “Pacific Rim”
Same blue color
Interesting color which actually makes it look cool. I wouldn’t want to be a sulfur miner. It seems as though you’d lose your senses of taster and smell shorty before your lungs collapse.
The water is hydrocholoric acid.
No doubt about why so many different religions believed volcanos were the “Gates of Hell”.
“highly acidic lake with a measured pH as low as 0.5”
That would cook your tootsies real good. VERY acidic!!
Lucky the volcano isn’t here the EPA would spill the acid into a waterway.
Wow dangerous but yet so beautiful =)
Or declare it a superfund site, pay for a $650,000 study as to the effects of dumping 750,000 tons of bicarbonate of soda into the volcano, solicit a $15 million donation from Proctor & Gamble for a $150 MM project to transport and dump kiltons of of bicarb into the thing, then impose a 25 cent per toothbrush tax on every American for the carbon dioxide that would be generated.
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