Kawah Ijen by night

Baru kali ini banyuwangi.asia menemukan gambar-gambar kawah ijen pada malam hari, mengagumkan. Photo-photonya sendiri diambil tahun 2010 lalu ketika seorang photographer, Olivier Grunewald berkunjung ke tambang belerang di kawah (gunung berapi) ijen, banyuwangi – jawa timur. Dengan berbekal beberapa peralatan photography, beliau berhasil menangkap gambar diterangi oleh cahaya bulan, obor, dan api biru membakar belerang cair.

A sulfur miner stands inside the crater of the Kawah Ijen volcano at night, holding a torch, looking towards a flow of liquid sulfur which has caught fire and burns with an eerie blue flame. (© Olivier Grunewald)

Descending into the Kawah Ijen caldera, a one-kilometer-wide acidic crater lake lies in the middle. On its shore, the sulfur mining operation. (© Olivier Grunewald)

Steam and acidic gases emerge from fumaroles among yellowish chunks of sulfur and burning liquid sulfur on Kawah Ijen. (© Olivier Grunewald)

Flaming molten sulfur flows inside the volcanic crater. Sulfur will melt at just above 100 C (212 F), but the temperatures in the crater do not get high enough for spontaneous combustion – the fires are lit by the miner’s dripping torches. (© Olivier Grunewald)

Miners labor in hellish conditions to retrieve the sulfur – Photographer Olivier Grunewald describes the smell as overwhelming, requiring a gas mask for safety, which few of the miners possess. (© Olivier Grunewald)

Molten sulfur burns after it drips from stone and ceramic pipes that have condensed the sulfuric gases from the volcano into a liquid, depositing it to cool and harden for later retrieval. (© Olivier Grunewald)

Para penambang dari ketinggian 2.600 meter (8.660 kaki) Gunung Kawah Ijen melakukan perjalanan ke kawah, kemudian turun ke tepi danau kawah asam sulfat berkedalaman 200 meter, dimana mereka mengambil potongan berat belerang murni untuk dibawa ke tempat penimbangan. Mr Grunewald telah berbaik hati untuk berbagi dengan kita, foto-fotonya yang berharga tentang orang-orang yang melakukan pekerjaan berbahaya di bawah cahaya rembulan.

Foto selengkapnya silahkan lihat di boston.bigpicture .