Image of the Week – Ice on Fire (Part 2)

A glacier cave on the flank of Mutnovsky volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. Sunlight filters through the glacial ice and a stream runs through the cave - fed by volcanic hot springs [Credit: Sergey Krasnoshchokov, National Geographic].

This week’s image looks like something out of a science fiction movie, but sometimes what we find on Earth is even more strange than what we can imagine! Where the heat of volcanoes meets the icy cold of glaciers strange and wonderful landscapes are formed. 

Location of the Kamchatka Peninsula [Credit: Encyclopaedia Britannica]

The Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far East of Russia, has the highest concentration of active volcanoes on Earth. Its climate is cold due to the Arctic winds from Siberia combined with cold sea currents passing through the Bearing Strait, meaning much of it is glaciated.

Mutnovsky is a volcano located in the south of the peninsula, which last erupted in March 2000. At the base of the volcano are numerous labyrinths of caves within ice. The caves are carved into the ice by volcanically heated water. The roof of the cave shown in our image of the week is thin enough to allow sunlight to penetrate. The light is filtered by the ice creating a magical environment inside the cave, which looks a bit like the stained glass windows of a cathedral. It is not always easy to access these caves, but when the conditions are favourable it makes for a wonderful sight!

The Mutnovsky volcano is fairly accessible for tourists, around 70 km south of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Maybe this could be the holiday destination you have been searching for?

Further Reading

We have featured a number of stories about ice-volcano interaction on our blog before, read more about them here, here and here!

Edited by Sophie Berger