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Name : Kawah Ijen volcanic crater lake
Location : East Java , Indonesia
Kawah Ijen crater lake is deadly to humans, but research suggests some microbes can survive its acidic conditions.
Coordinates:-8.05796494233988 , 114.2415831801649
Why it ’s incredible : The volcano ’s crater lake is as acidic as car bombardment acid , yet it still hosts life .
Kawah Ijen is a colossus , activevolcanoon the island of Java with a crater that contains the Earth ’s great acidic lake . The water has a pH low than 0.3 in parts of the lake where hydrothermal fluids rise up from inside Earth ’s impudence , filling the water system with minerals , as well as sulfuric and hydrochloric acids .
This picture taken on June 15, 2016 shows brilliant blue flames lighting up the night sky above Kawah Ijen volcano.
A pH of 0.3 is similar to that of shelling Lucy in the sky with diamonds , a answer that creates and stores electrical energy in machine . For comparison , gastric acid has a pH between 1.5 and 2 , and lemon juice scores between 2 and 3 . But despite conditions that would dissolve human skin instantly , Kawah Ijen ’s acidic lake is home to a small community of microbes , harmonize to a 2006study .
Related:‘A challenge and an chance for development ' — The extreme , hidden life flourish in Earth ’s most acidic and alkaline lakes
Kawah Ijen volcanic crater lake ’s blueish - green color is so burnished , it’svisible from space . The minerals and acid in the crater lake give the water its seemingly artificial peacock blue color . They spring up from a chamber of red - raging magma below the volcano , which last erupted in 1999 . The volcano stands 9,085 feet ( 2,769 meters ) tall and the crater measures 2,300 by 2,625 feet ( 700 by 800 m ) wide of the mark .
‘Bitter water’ river
rainwater regularly replenishes Kawah Ijen ’s acidic lake , but the new piss immediately reverse caustic due to blowhole that issue gas continuously at the bottom of the lake . When the volcanic crater is full , water overflows into a stream on the vent ’s west side that feeds into the Banyupahit River lavatory — the name of the river mean " bitter water " in the Javanese lyric .
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If the volcanic crater lake ’s highly acidulent waters were n’t eerie enough , Kawah Ijen also emits sulfurous gasolene that catch fervour when they come into touch with oxygen in Earth ’s atmosphere . When the gas wake above the volcano , they bring out electric down flaming that mostly go unnoticed during the day , but make an astonishing spectacle at dark .
Often , the S in these gases condenses after get swooning , spring a liquid that flows a shortsighted aloofness along the volcano before solidifying into yellow deposit . Local multitude mine these deposits , break-dance off chunks of S which they sell to a refined sugar refinery in the expanse that apply them to remove color impurities from the saccharide .
There is considerable risk involved in these mining operations , according to the website Geology.com , including harm from toxicant sulfur gas , unconstipated gas detonation and dangerous paths up and down the volcano .
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