WhiteLight
Senior Member
Had to, just had to share this...
Mother Earth is freaking beautiful..
SOURCE
More Pics at SOURCE
And the man who brought this to us- Olivier Grunewald
At work!! -
[video=youtube;gzi67qOtvsg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gzi67qOtvsg[/video]
DISCLAIMER - None of the pics are mine (i wish!) posting here for everyone to enjoy..
All images © Olivier Grunewald
Please visit sources for further credits
Mother Earth is freaking beautiful..
At first glance you might think the otherworldly light in these pictures comes from a nebula or another planet deep in outer space.
In fact it is made by burning sulphur which pours from the side of the Kawah Ijen volcano on planet Earth, which is part of the Ijen volcano complex in East Java, Indonesia.
Miners have run ceramic pipes from vents in the side of the mountain to collection points inside a large crater where the molten chemical is left to cool before being broken up and carried away.
Out of this world: While these pictures may appear to be from another planet, they are in fact produced by burning sulphur here on Earth
The molten chemical comes from the sides of the Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia and is directed through pipes by miners to collection points in a nearby crater
SOURCE
A sulfur miner stands inside the crater of the Kawah Ijen volcano at night, holding a torch, looking towards a flow of liquid sulfur which has caught fire and burns with an eerie blue flame. (© Olivier Grunewald)
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Descending into the Kawah Ijen caldera, a one-kilometer-wide acidic crater lake lies in the middle. On its shore, the sulfur mining operation. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Steam and acidic gases emerge from fumaroles among yellowish chunks of sulfur and burning liquid sulfur on Kawah Ijen. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Flaming molten sulfur flows inside the volcanic crater. Sulfur will melt at just above 100 C (212 F), but the temperatures in the crater do not get high enough for spontaneous combustion - the fires are lit by the miner's dripping torches. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A miner chips away hunks of solid sulfur to take with him back to the mine office. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A sulfur deposit clings to the edge of an old barrel now embedded in sulfur inside Kawah Ijen. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Miners labor in hellish conditions to retrieve the sulfur - Photographer Olivier Grunewald describes the smell as overwhelming, requiring a gas mask for safety, which few of the miners possess. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Miners rest near a fire, holding long crowbars they use to pry the sulfur from the crater. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A formation caused by liquid sulfur flow inside the crater of Kawah Ijen. When molten, sulfur appears nearly blood red, as it cools, it becomes more and more yellow. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Molten sulfur burns after it drips from stone and ceramic pipes that have condensed the sulfuric gases from the volcano into a liquid, depositing it to cool and harden for later retrieval.
A miner works on a block of sulfur, to fit it into the baskets used to carry the mineral out of the volcano. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Working close to condensation pipes a miner gathers sulfur from Kawah Ijen, molten sulfur burning blue in the background. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Miners carry heavy blocks of sulfur, preparing for their return trip. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Molten sulfur burns atop a solid sulfur deposit. Miners will extinguish the flames before they leave to prevent any loss of sulfur. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A miner begins his return trip with his heavy load of sulfur. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A masked miner walks through a thick cloud of steam and acidic gas, carrying a torch near the blue flames of a burning liquid sulfur flow. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A miner adjusts his load - each pair of full baskets can weigh from 45 to 90kg (100 - 200 lbs). (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Miners begin their journey home, clouds of steam and gas behind them lit by moonlight, torchlight, and burning liquid sulfur. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A miner's hut just inside the crater of Kawah Ijen. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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A miner adjusts his load of sulfur blocks. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Miners carrying torches climb back up the wall of Kawah Ijen's crater, beginning their return trip with a 200 meter climb to the crater lip. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
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Photographer Olivier Grunewald kneels to get a photograph on a small rock outcropping in the acid crater lake of Kawah Ijen. "The feeling is like being on another planet" he said. Grunewald lost one camera and two lenses to the harsh conditions in the crater, and when it was over, he threw all of his clothes in the garbage, as the sulfuric smell was so strong and would not wash out. (© Olivier Grunewald) #
More Pics at SOURCE
And the man who brought this to us- Olivier Grunewald
At work!! -
[video=youtube;gzi67qOtvsg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gzi67qOtvsg[/video]
All images © Olivier Grunewald
Please visit sources for further credits