Valley of Geysers

A river carved this deep valley.

Under the ground, the earth is very hot, so steam and hot water come bubbling and spouting out.

The Geyser River carved this canyon, 8 kilometers long, up to 4 kilometers wide and up to 400 meters deep. Kamchatka has dozens of such canyons, but this one is special: more than 40 geysers and many hot springs are packed into just 6 kilometers.

The Kronotsky Reserve describes a geyser as a boiling spring that now and then spews a mix of water and steam. Each geyser has its own cycle.

Kronotsky Reserve: the canyon (8 km long, up to 4 km wide, up to 400 m deep) was carved by the Geyser River; more than 40 geysers and many hot springs lie within a 6 km stretch divided into nine zones. All known forms of geothermal activity occur: permanent and intermittent boiling springs, hot lakes, geysers, mud volcanoes and cauldrons, thermal platforms and steam jets. Geysers differ in channel length, cycle, phases, regularity, discharge, vapor-water ratio and chemistry.

In 2007, part of a mountainside slid down into the valley.

It covered some geysers and made a new lake.

On 3 June 2007, the side of a mountain collapsed into the valley. A landslide of mud, snow, trees and boulders covered more than 1.7 kilometers of the valley and blocked the Geyser River, making a new lake.

Some geysers were buried, and others were flooded by the lake. But the valley kept changing: some hot springs began to act as geysers, and a new geyser appeared.

Kronotsky Reserve: on 3 June 2007 a mountainside collapsed into the upper Vodopadny Creek; the two-phase landslide, about 20 million cubic meters, buried more than 1.7 km of the valley over a width of 200-400 m and dammed the Geyser River; the lake later drained partly and is up to 20 m deep. Seven geysers were buried and others flooded; two springs began to act as geysers, the new Mladenets (Newborn) geyser appeared, and the new Geyser Lake, with turquoise water, is inhabited by algae and aquatic invertebrates. NASA's Terra satellite imaged the slide and lake on 11 June 2007.

Special tiny living things live around the hot springs.

Mosses and plants grow there too.

The hot water and warm ground make a home for living things found nowhere else, the Kronotsky Reserve says: communities of heat-loving bacteria, algae, lichens, mosses and plants.

The warm patches sit side by side with ordinary plant life, and this mix also affects the animals that live in the valley.

Kronotsky Reserve: native communities of thermal bacteria, algae, lichens, mosses and vascular plants are unique to the area; the combination of normal and 'interzonal' vegetation with thermal ecosystems significantly influences local fauna; the valley's biology has drawn biologists from many fields. UNESCO's Volcanoes of Kamchatka page (inscribed 1996, boundaries extended 2001) links to the Kronotsky Reserve.

Visitors may go only to some parts of the valley.

The water is boiling hot!

Visits to the Valley of Geysers are ecological excursions in the central part of the valley, the 5th, 6th and 7th zones, the Kronotsky Reserve says. Since the landslide, the excursions also teach visitors how and why it happened.

The springs here are boiling. For hot-spring areas in its own parks, the US National Park Service warns that the water can severely burn you: stay on boardwalks and marked trails and keep children close at all times.

Kronotsky Reserve: ecological excursions take place in the central zones (5th, 6th and 7th); after 2007 new themes were added on the causes, process and results of the landslide. NPS hydrothermal safety (Yellowstone): stay on boardwalks and designated trails; hydrothermal water can severely burn you; supervise children at all times.