|
Guagua Pichincha
A muddy walk in the
crater bottom of the volcano
 in
deutsch
|
|
The pre
signs of the great eruption in autumn 1999, with addidtional images
from January 2006
At the 10th of January 1999 Bernhard Bauer,
Gerhard Neumaier and I reached the top of the Pinchincha (4854 m)
which was not a real hard trip because the refugio was situated on
4600 m altitude and reachable with four-wheeled cars. At this time
the volcano had a rhythm of two mud-eruptions per day. In the early
morning we could hear one blast at 3.40
Summit area of Gagua Pinchincha
Inside the crater.
On the bottom the new vent from 2000
|
 1
Mud
covered plants. Every 24h an eruption took place!
|
After reaching the upper rim we climbed down 600
altimeters to the bottom of the crater. On the first picture
which was taken on the rim of the main crater, you can see
plants covered centimeters with mud, what means that the
height of the eruption was enor-mous. In the background you
can see the new? bocca.
|
2
 3
 4
|
Pictures 3,4,5 are showing Bernhard Bauer and me walking
through the 20cm deep fresh mud at the crater-bottom. Around
us, we discovered ejected rocks up to 1 meter which were
forming craters of three and more meters.
|
 5
|
On the next photo you can see the the vent of the Gagua
Pinchincha( 5,6 ). The bocca was apprx. 50 meter deep and
had a diameter of 70 m and was situated on the bottom of the
main crater. Inside the bocca, a steady activity of
fumaroles took place.
|
Of course we had very, very mixed feelings at this
place, because no one could promised us that the activity
will start again in the next minutes. And after discovering
the craters beside, everyone could made up his mind that
there would be less chances to survive the next
volcano-attack.
|
6
7
|
After visiting the main fumarole
which was located 150 meters in northern direction from the
bocca and blowing under a loud hissing sound a gas-steam-mix
out ( 7 ), we decided, to leave the crater faster as usual,
because from one moment to the other we got the trousers
finally..........
Map
of the active area shows the important active places
|
Etna
Stromboli
Volcano world  Cinema
From Etna to Stromboli
Planets & Space
©2002 photos by T. Boeckel
last modification 18.1.2002
This private, non-commercial web site
do not use cookies !
IMPRESSUM
PRIVACY
DATENSCHUTZ
|
