Stunning Electric-Blue Flames Erupt From Volcanoes

Indonesia’s Kawah Ijen and other craters emit rivers of light from burning sulfur.

For several years Paris-based photographer Olivier Grunewald has been documenting the Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, where dazzling, electric-blue fire can often be seen streaming down the mountain at night.

“This blue glow—unusual for a volcano—isn’t, of course, lava, as unfortunately can be read on many websites,” Grunewald told National Geographic in an email about Kawah Ijen, a volcano on the island of Java.

The glow is actually the light from the combustion of sulfuric gases, Grunewald explained.

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,” said Grunewald, “giving the feeling of lava flowing.”

Cynthia Werner, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, told National Geographic that Grunewald’s photos show an unusual phenomenon.

“I’ve never seen this much sulfur flowing at a volcano,” she said.

Werner noted that forest fires in Yellowstone National Park have caused similar “rivers,” as heat from the blazes melted the sulfur around hydrothermal vents.

“When you go to Yellowstone, you can see their traces as black lines,” she said.

According to Werner, it’s relatively common to find molten sulfur around volcanic fumaroles (hot vents). The mineral has a relatively low melting point of 239°F (115°C), and the temperature at the hot vents often exceeds that.

Blue volcanic fire was described in antiquity in Italy on the south slope of Mount Vesuvius and on the island of Vulcano, Grunewald said.

“Blue flames may also be observed at the base of the plume of erupting volcanoes, when ash explosions occur,” he added.

Grunewald did not use any filters to capture his images of the blue fire. The burning happens day and night, but it’s visible only in darkness.

Kawah Ijen volcano is the subject of a new documentary released earlier this month that was produced by Grunewald and Régis Etienne, the president of Geneva’s Society of Volcanology.

Photograph by Olivier Grunewald

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.

Werner explained how the lake became so acidic: The volcano emitted hydrogen chloride gas, which reacted with the water and formed a highly condensed hydrochloric acid with a pH of almost 0.

The lake has a volume of 1.3 billion cubic feet (36 million cubic meters), or about 1/320 of the volume of Oregon’s Crater Lake.

Photograph by Olivier Grunewald

In the Kawah Ijen crater, sulfuric gases escaping from cracks ignite as they come in contact with the air.

As the burning gases cool, they deposit sulfur around the lake.

To speed up the formation of the mineral, a mining company installed ceramic pipes on an active vent near the edge of the lake, said John Pallister, a USGS geologist who has studied the volcano.

The pipes route the sulfur gases down the vent’s sloping mound. When the gases cool, they condense into liquid sulfur, which then flows or drips from the pipes and solidifies into hard sulfur mats.

After the solid sulfur cools, the miners break it up and haul it off the mountain on their backs.

“I have also seen the miners spraying water from a small pump onto the pipes to promote cooling and condensation,” said Pallister via email. “Sulfur stalactites sometimes form from the liquid sulfur dripping from the pipes. These are collected and sold to tourists.”

Pallister added, “I have been told that the miners sometimes ignite the sulfur and/or sulfur gases to produce the blue flames that are so prominent in nighttime photographs.”

Miners have been extracting sulfur here for more than 40 years. At times they work at night under the eerie blue light to escape the heat of the sun, and to earn extra income, Grunewald said.

The miners sell the sulfur for about 600 Indonesian rupiah per kilo (less than 25 U.S. cents per pound), said Grunewald. They can carry loads of 176 to 220 pounds (80 to 100 kilos) once a day—or twice if they work into the night.

Photograph by Olivier Grunewald

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.”

Photograph by Olivier Grunewald

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.

Tony Abbott downplays role of climate change in current drought

Date

February 17, 2014 – 3:58PM

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Peter Hannam

Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald

Prime Minister Tony Abbott met grazier Kym Cramp of “Mount Gipps” station near Broken Hill, NSW, as part of a drought tour with Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce on Monday. Photo: Andrew Meares

• Federal politics: full coverage
• Sceptic to head renewables review

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has downplayed the role of climate change in the drought ravaging much of inland eastern Australia, and indicated the coming relief package for farmers will not take into account future increases in extreme weather events predicted by scientists.

At the end of a two-day tour to Bourke and Broken Hill in NSW and Longreach in Queensland, Mr Abbott said the current period of extreme heat and dry conditions – broken in part during his weekend visit – was not unusual for Australia.

Mr Abbott at the “Mount Gipps” station. Photo: Andrew Meares

”If you look at the records of Australian agriculture going back 150 years, there have always been good times and bad, tough and lush times,” Mr Abbott said.

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”This is not a new thing in Australia.

“As the seasons have changed, climatic variation has been a constant here in Australia.”

Mr Abbott, who has previously ruled out climate change as a factor in other disasters such as October’s early-season bushfires in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, signalled a warming climate won’t feature in the drought-aid package he is expected to bring to cabinet.

Mr Abbott is likely to seek an extra $280 million in low-interest loans for farmers, among other measures such as assistance to curb soaring numbers of feral animals.

Touring the Mt Gipps cattle and sheep station north of Broken Hill on Monday, he said there was as “a world of difference” between companies seeking hand-outs and farmers needing help to get through the current drought.

“Farmers ought to be able to deal with things expected every few years,” Mr Abbott said.

“Once you start getting into very severe events, 1-in-20, 50, 100-year events, that’s when I think people need additional assistance because that is…beyond what a sensible business can be expected to plan for.”

Climate scientists have said Australia is already experiencing more frequent and more intense heatwaves, and can expect the number of hot days each year will continue to increase.

The three regions visited by Mr Abbott all had their hottest six-month period on record for the August-January period, with rainfall as little as a fifth of normal levels.

While the weekend’s rain, including Bourke’s heaviest one-day fall since November 2012 during Mr Abbott’s visit on Sunday, will go some way to helping farmers follow-up rain will be critical to any recovery, local farmers said.

Graziers have been offloading their livestock as they battle to cope with drought and declining feedstock.

John Cramp, owner of the Mt Gipps station, said the recent extreme heat in his region had seen his cattle remain near their water troughs rather than go in search of remaining grass.

“They won’t leave their water, they won’t poke out and get some feed,” Mr Cramp said.

He added that in his view, “climates have always changed”.

Prior to last weekend, Broken Hill’s average maximum temperatures in February were running about eight degrees above average for this time of year at more than 40 degrees.

January maximums were also more than three degrees above average.

Money Money Money

Swedish pop legends Abba wore garish stage costumes to save money on their tax bills, according to a new book to mark their Eurovision success 40 years ago.

According to a story in the Mail on Sunday, the group took advantage of a law which meant their clothes were tax deductible if not also used for regular wear.

Band member Bjorn Ulvaeus recalls that the “terrible” clothes also meant people would remember the then-aspiring superstars.

Fri Feb 14, 2014 4:41am EST

Science & Environment