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Valley of the Geysers. Gone!!!!
This really breaks my heart.
A massive landslide has completely destroyed one of the world's greatest natural treasures: the Valley of the Geysers.
Located in Kamchatka, a part of Russia's Far East, the Valley of the Geysers is, as you might imagine, a valley of geysers--more than 90 in fact. This desolate natural phenomenon was discovered in 1940 and today remains accessible only by helicopter. I've been dying to visit for a number of years now and was probably within 12 months of doing so. It never occurred to me that I needed to hurry up before it disappeared. But on Sunday, a landslide more than a mile long and 600 feet wide buried 2/3 of the famous valley and most all of its geysers.
Yes, our world is a fragile place indeed. After all the squawking I've done in the last two years about global warming and disappearing glaciers, I never thought that the Valley of the Geysers would be the first to go. And yet, it has happened.
The only good news here is that the landslide has created a natural dam and experts believe that a lake will eventually take form here. In the meantime, we can only gaze upon the above photo, taken by Robnunn, and wave goodbye to a very cool place indeed.
Filed under: Russian Federation
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Jun 6th 2007 3:15AM
WE humans tend to think that we do much more than we really can.
When the Yellowstone Caldera blew up 100,000 years ago, the devastation of the North American continent was beyond our modern capacity to understand. When a glacier dam in Montana gave way, the resulting flood was so massive that the scablands in the present state of Washington were formed. The whirpools created by that flood were so powerful they drilled into solid rock! Vesuvius buried two major cities, and another volcano in the Mediterranean destroyed most of the Cretan civilization while probably causing the seven plagues of Egypt (fiery hail, red water, dead frogs, etc.). Another major collapse of a natural dam in the Black Sea north of Turkey probably caused many cultures to write about the Great Flood such as Noah's.
Nature can unleash a Yellowstone or Krakatoa or glacier dam flood or a solar cycle can gives us "a year without winter" as has happened in the past. That will happen and we must adapt. If that means growing corn in Greenland, driving hybrids is not going to change that.
Neil Jun 6th 2007 3:15AM
Great point, John!