A strange eruption creates a dazzling light show The night is pitch black but the dark slopes of a hill inside the crater of Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia a country in Asia are lit up like holiday light show. Tourists flock to the volcano to see what look like glowing blue rives of lava. but they aren't rivers of lava. They'er revers of glowing sulfur. Burning blue Glowing red lava flowing an eruption an erupting volcano isn't unusual. Glowing sulfur is. Hot sulfur rich gasses escape constantly from cracks called fumaroles in Kawah Ijen's crater. The gases cool when they hit the air. Some condense into liquid sulfur which flow down the hillside. When the sulfur and leftover gases ignite they burn bright blue and light up the budget sky. Scientists were told sulfur miners on the volcano sometimes use torches to aging the sulfur. The blue flames make Kawah Ijen popular with tourists. who watch from a safe distance. Scientists have also confirmed that some of the sulfur and gases also burn naturally igniting as hot gases combine with oxygen in the air. volcano miners sulfur is a common volcanic gas and it chemical it chemical properties are used to manufacture many things such as rubber. But it's so plentiful in Kawah Injen's crater that miners make a dangerous daily trek into the crater to collect sulfur form a fumarole near and acid like. The local people pipe the gases from the fumarole through ceramic pipes say John palmister a retired geologist with the cascades volcano Observatory in Washington state. He has walled into the crater himself wearing a gas mask for protection against th clouds of acid that rise from the lake. They spray the pipes with water from a spring he says. This cools the gases and causes them to condense into molten sulfur. The sulfur then cool and hardens into rock using this method miners get more usable rock faster than if they just collected scattered pieces. They smash collated scattered pieces. They smash up the rock with metal bars stuff the piece into baskets and carry them out of the crater on their backs the loads are heavy between 100 and 200 pounds apiece. Reading the Danger Zone miners face another danger a huge eruption Kawah Ijen last big eruption was almost 200 years ago but the volcano is still active. A big eruption could endanger hundreds of miners and tourist. Indonesian scientist what to find a keep everyone safe but deep acid signals that warn of a coming volcanic eruption. For example certain gases are usually more abundant right before they can register on the geologist monitoring equipment as scientists search for ways to predict this unusual volcano's behavior Kawah Ijen's blue fires continue to attract audience who appreciate the volcano's amazing glow. How kasha Ijen Erupts earth 's outer shell is broken into a jigsaw puzzle of several tectonic plates or gigantic slabs of rock that move constantly in Indonesia the oceanic Australian plate slips under the eurasian plate at a subduction zone. As the Australia plate slides deep down heat generated in earth 's interior makes the superhot and parts of rises toward magma earth 's surface. Pressure on the magma lessen as it rises allowing gases inside to expand which can lead to explosive volcanic eruptions Indonesia is a grown of more then 17,500 island off the coast of southeast Asia it the largest country in the region. when the volcano on the tiny Indonesian island Kraaatau erupted in August 1883, it could be hard thousands of miles away. The rafflesia arnoldii the largest single follow in the world grows in Indonesia the flower smells like rotting meat can grow three feet across and weighs up to 24 pounds. Nearly 11 million people live in Jakarta Indonesia city with largesse population that 's almost 2.5 million more people than are living in new York city more than active volcanos are in Indonesia. from called book national geographic kids.
