Articles and posts of topic volcanism

El Teide – Tenerife’s Volcano Giant

The Canary Islands are located at the shore of North Africa and only a few couple of hours on the plane away from Europe. All together they are witnesses of Earth’s history and on Tenerife that gets revealed at its best as over there the interior force of the earth created El Teide, an imposing volcano that is to boot Spain’s tallest elevation.… Read More

Taupō – Volcanic Zone and Identity Giver for the Maōri

Volcanism created New Zealand and even today the force emerging from the Earth’s inside is omnipresent on those islands in the South Pacific Ocean no matter if as earthquakes in the south or in the shape of real fire mountains on the north island. Like a belt the appearances of Taupō Volcanic Zone lead through the whole country, starting with offshore volcano White Island, the geothermally active area of colourful Wai-O-Tapu near Rotorua, right through to Lake Taupo super volcano and the fire mountains Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu to end at Mount Taranaki.… Read More

Avacha, Kamchatka’s Red Riding Hood

Avachinskaya Sopka – colloquially also known as Avachinsky or Avacha – is the backyard volcano of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the regional capital of Far East Russia’s volcano peninsula. It is a ~4000 years old Somma-type volcano, meaning it is growing and prospering inside the caldera of a historic fire mountain. The magma rising up inside the Avacha contains more iron ore than usual.… Read More

Mount Ruapehu – Above the Clouds of North New Zealand

Mount Ruapehu marks the southern end of the Taupo volcanic zone. Together with stunning Tongariro national park it stands for a region that shapes and defines the character of New Zealand’s north island. With an elevation of impressive 2797 metres it is also North New Zealand’s lighthouse, its highest spot; a place easily seen from the far away.… Read More

Simpson Harbour – Panorama of the Rabaul Caldera

The Simpson Harbour is one of the world’s largest and most beautiful natural harbours. It measures impressive 14×9 kilometres and was once, in World War II an important battle field of the Japanese and Allies. While their fight for supremacy in Oceania and the whole war is over already, a different battle still happens.… Read More

Tongariro – The Film Star among Volcanoes

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is one of New Zealand’s most known hikes, a so called Great Walk and like the name already tells visitors can cross the massif of an active volcano. In particular movie fans will know about this place from the epic “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy as it is the place where finally gets rid of evil ring.… Read More

Ice Caves and Fumaroles – South Kamchatka’s volcanic Soul

Mutnovsky and Gorely are the names of the volcanic protagonists in Kamchatka’s South; two places known to many tourists visiting Kamchatka as almost every tour makes a stop over there to bring humans in touch with the admittedly weaker appearances of the biggest force on our planet. South Kamchatka is more inhabited than the north, which is no surprise as it is home of the regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and its suburb Yelizovo, the airfield welcoming the big and small airplanes from coming from Moscow and elsewhere.… Read More

Klyuchevskoy and Tolbachik – The northern Volcano Giants

Kliuchevskoi – an impressive name reminding of a Russian poet and thinker. Actually the official name of Russia’s pyramid is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (Ключевская сопка) but even for the locals this title seems to be a little too long. The fire mountain stands for quite a bunch of superlatives, for example being with an altitude of about 4800 meters the highest volcano not only on Eurasian continental plate but also in northern hemisphere.… Read More

Sunda – The Fire Mountain Strait

When magma – normally being covered by the Earth’s mantle – comes to light and shakes hands with water, experts only speaks of a phreatomagmatic eruption slightly subcooled, whereas the world we know is confronted with an explosive force that can be several hundred Hiroshima bombs strong. In the year 1883 such a volcanic eruption of epic proportions occurred.… Read More