Lake of Acid It takes you and Pallister more than two hours to get to the top of Kawah Ijen. What was once green and lush is now treeless and full of gray, jagged rock. If you look down into the crater, you see fluff y, yellow clouds. T ey are made of poisonous sulfur gas. You also see a beautiful lake. It’s the largest
acid lake in the world. Sulfur gas from the volcano leaks into the water through vents below. T e gas mixes with the water and makes an acid that is stronger than the acid in a car battery. From the top of the crater, you see
something else, too. It looks like tiny blue flashlights flickering on the ground. Is that the blue lava? Not exactly, Pallister tells you. Kawah Ijen’s lava is a fiery red, like other volcanoes. T e blue that you are seeing comes from sulfur gas. When the sulfur seeps out, it mixes with oxygen in the air and catches fire. T e chemical reaction creates a bright blue flame.
Workers rely on their strength to mine sulfur at Kawah Ijen.
Into the Crater You want to get closer to see it better. You promise Pallister you’ll stay on the trail. As you begin to climb down toward the lake, you run into someone else. Corentin Caudron studies the volcano and its acid lake. “I’m always discovering new things about Kawah Ijen,” Caudron says. Caudron has spent the day in a boat on
the lake. He was measuring chemicals in the water and recording its color. It’s dangerous work. “I always have to be careful when I’m out in my boat,” he says. “If the water touches a cut on my hands or face, it will burn me.” He’s looking for changes in the water or
ground that might be a sign that an eruption could happen soon. If so, he would warn local people to leave the area for their safety. T e trip to the bottom takes another 30
minutes. Once there, you see rivers of blue shimmering in the darkness. Billowing clouds of steam and sulfur driſt out of the volcano’s fumaroles. T at’s not all you see.
14 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER
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