The Earth Story

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hot springs and fumaroles, Mutnovsky volcano

Aurorae shimmering over the steaming Earth Geysers and hot springs occur when water gets superheated by underlying magma chambers filled with molten rock. A convection cell of sinking rainwater and rising superheated H2O establishes itself, dissolving and redepositing minerals as it cycles up and down through the energy gradient. Like the glowing plasma above which is fuelled by charged particles fired off from the sun interacting with our magnetic field and the particles at the tenuous edge of the atmosphere, the energy source is removed from the visible effect, but both reveal the essential interpenetration of all things and energies that make up the beautiful universe (or multiverse) that we live in. Loz Image credit: Stéphane Vetter https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131031.html

This is pretty magnificent - just about 2 years after flow stopped on the Lower East Rift Zone of Kilauea, walking across tephra and lava layers out to the Fissure 8 mound, pulling out an infrared thermometer, and checking the temperature of the gas vents still on the site. That's heat originally delivered during the eruption, still slowly leaking its way out. Make sure you watch the end where he gets a view from the summit of fissure 8, into its heart, down the other cones left by the various fissures, and out to the ocean.

Fissure 8, the Cinder Cone that produced the largest lava flows in the 2018 Kilauea eruption, is still steaming and barren today. Here’s a visit. 

A drone tour over the many steaming craters of Mt. Etna, Sicily - one of the most active volcanoes on Earth.

Salton Sea Geothermal Field The steam plumes in this photo are being emitted by a power plant near California’s Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is a disaster area – an enclosed basin below sea level that catastrophically flooded in the early 20th century (http://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js1b-EC2h). That low land occurs here for a reason; the land is being literally pulled apart.

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The ocean-water filled crater of Anak Krakatau volcano following the collapse last year and continuing eruptions.

Rotorua hot spring, New Zealand

Do you want to see a drone towards into the steam cloud of an erupting geyser? Yes you do. Also great beach shots, some nice views of ice with tons of ash layers in it, overviews of hydrothermal areas where the rocks are stained a variety of colors, and nice ice/ocean shots.