Kamchatka Ice Cave This photograph shows a cave in the ices on the slopes of Mutnovsky volcano in Ka
Kamchatka Ice Cave This photograph shows a cave in the ices on the slopes of Mutnovsky volcano in Kamchatka. The volcanoes in this area stand above the surrounding peninsula, close to the Arctic Circle. Large amounts of snow and glaciers accumulate on their slopes, but the volcanoes also produce hot springs undercut and melt the glaciers. There are an impressive variety of features visible here. If you study the surface of the cave, you see a variety of flow, erosion, and drip patterns. The waters flowing through a cave like this are turbulent, splashing the roof in various places, forming eddies, and eroding the ice. Those complex processes leave ridges and troughs on the roof. On top of that, water dripping downwards is able to re-freeze, building ridges and drips on the ceiling as well. There is a large pile of rock at the bottom. This rock is material being carried by the glacier – in fact you can even see layers on the walls containing some rocks. Notice how the rocks are all very big – the glacier was carrying a variety of smaller rocks as well, but the current flowing through this cave was strong enough that any rocks smaller than these were carried away. -JBB Read more:http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/12/kamchatka-ice-cave.html Image credit: freely available as wallpapers. -- source link
#kamchatka#volcano#ice cave#glacier#flood#geology#science