When a volcano erupts and spews lava onto the surrounding terrain, it is merciless in its destruction. All that is green on the land is engulfed in flame, or buried by an insurmountable mass of molten rock. Whatever charred remains of what lies beneath it will not see the light of day once the lava cools, turning the landscape into a barren black mass of solid basalt. But volcanoes around the worl ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Turkey’s cotton castle
This week, Imaggeo on Mondays is brought to you by Josep Ubalde, who transports us to a wonderful site in western Turkey: a city of hot springs and ancient ruins dubbed cotton castle, after the voluminous white rocks that spread from the spring’s centre… Pamukkale is lies in Turkey’s inner Aegean region, within an active fault that favours the formation of hot springs. The spring’s hot water ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Quartz lawns and crystal flowers
Petrologists spend a large part of their time peering down microscopes at wafer thin slices of rock to work out what they’re made of and how they were formed. What lies on the other side of the lens can be an incredibly beautiful pattern, a kaleidoscope of colour, or stark bands of black and white, all of which provide clues to the rock’s history, and the history of the landscape it came from. Ber ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Villarrica Volcano
This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays highlights the vulnerability of Villarrica’s slopes and zooms in on the volcano’s spectacular crater… Villarrica, one of the largest stratovolcanoes in Chile, is also one of the country’s most active. The volcano is iced by glaciers that make the mountain a stunning scene, but also a dangerous one. The glaciers cover some 30 square-kilometres of the volcano and, duri ...[Read More]