Valley of the Geysers roars back to life

23 May, 2008, 05:23

One of the great natural wonders of the world, Russia’s Valley of the Geysers is located in Russia’s far Eastern Kamchatka region. It’s a place where you can watch the heat of the Earth’s core bubble through the surface.

Very few people get to visit it, with expensive flights limiting the number of tourists – leaving the area almost the sole preserve of environmental scientists.

The valley was devastated by a mudslide last June. One and half kilometres long, it buried the geysers in millions of cubic metres of mud, rock and earth. Many thought the Valley had been destroyed forever.

But just one year on, the scientists are marvelling at the valley’s rapid regeneration.

“From a scientific point of view, it was interesting to trace how that new lake formed, and how it affects the area’s geothermal system, particularly the geysers,” volcanologist Valery Droznin says.

Heavy with minerals, the lake is a bright turquoise with a constant temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. Its emergence has heralded changes in local wildlife, according to deputy Director of Kronotsky Nature Reserve, Vladimir Mosolov.

“At the moment, we’re already seeing changes. Different species of birds are stopping here. The Slavonion greebe has been spotted here for the first time in the last 20 years,” Mosolov says.

The Kamchatka bears are back too, their tracks evidence of the regeneration of the area and bringing hope that the tourists will come back to trail them.