Just today we posted our first hiking recommendation for Kamchatka, Russia — having missed completely the news story being reported over the past week:
Scientists mourn devastation of Valley of Geysers
Wildlife in the Valley of Geysers may be threatened by the rubble that has caused flooding (below).
Teams of scientists have been sent to the Valley of Geysers, on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, to report on the condition of the World Heritage site after a massive landslide in the Kronotsky national reserve.
The slide, which lasted only seconds on 3 June, loosed an estimated 4.5 million cubic metres of rock, gravel, snow and ice. A deluge of material into the Geyser River created a dam the size of 30 football fields, officials estimated. This has since been breached by waters building up behind the dam, clearing some of the valley and allowing at least some of the geysers to spout again.
The extent of damage to the region is unclear, including to scientists contacted by Nature who have study sites in the area.
news @ nature.com – Scientists mourn devastation of Valley of Geysers …
See a sobering series of before-and-after photos.
No humans were injured.
Volcanic disruptions like this happen over and over, geologically speaking.
It may be attractive for hikers to see how the landscape recovers as they do at Mt. Saint Helens in Washington State.
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