Natural sights of Kamchatka

The Valley of Geysers is a specially area, included in the Kronotsky State Biospheric Zapovednik.

In 1996 UNESCO included this Reserve (as one of five objects nominated as “Volcanoes of Kamcharka”) to the List of Universal Natural Heritage.

The river Geysernaya, along which almost all the geysers and springs are located, flows through a deep V-ravine and then through a volcanic dale for hundreds meters. The Valley of Geysers is a basin of the river Geysernaya with all its streams.

There are over 20 big and scores of small geysers; hundreds of different thermal springs, among them are boiling springs and hot lakes, boiling mud and steamy holes, a lot of steam streams and fumaroles. The strength of the calorification in the valley of Geysers is one of the largest in Kamchatka (about 70 000 kilocalorie/sec). As all the geysers and springs are grouped on the territory of 3 – 4 sq. km..

The active geysers are situated along the coastal slopes of the river Geysernaya, they stretch for 6 km starting with its mouth (geyser Pervenets) and up to Tripple Waterfall (the group of Verknniye geysers). The most part of the geysers are located either close to river-bed or nit far from it. All big geysers are on the left bank of the river.

Among the hot springs geysers take a particular place. The periods of their rest yield to the periods of stormy activity. Each geyser has its own periodicity.

This phenomenon is to the same extent beautiful and rare. Big geysers are also located in Iceland, in the Yellowstone Park in the USA and in New Zealand. A small number of not big geysers are in California, in Japan and in the Tibet. But they cannot be compared in beauty and sublimity with the gushing springs on the limited territory of the Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka.

Kronotsky Volcano towers up in the center of the Kronotsky Zapovednik. It is one of the most beautiful volcanoes in Kamchatka. On the clear day its snow-covered top is seen from hundreds of kilometers. The foot of it is washed by the biggest lake in Kamchatka – The Krinitskoye Lake. In this mountainous lake lives the only representative of the freshwater species of red salmon on the Asiatic continent – “kokani”. It appeared in ancient times when the lake turned out to be cut off from the ocean after eruptions of neighbouring volcanoes.

14 km. from the Valley of Geysers there is another place of interest of the Kronotsky Zapovednik. It is Uzon Caldera. This unique world is concentrated in the huge volcanic hollow in the stage of intensive hydro-thermal activity. The dimensions of caldera (from Spanish “pot”) are large - 9×12 km., the total area is 150 sq. km. Its eastern part is hilly, and the western one is waterlogged.

Hydro-thermal activity is concentrated on the five thermal sites in the South-western part of caldera. It is revealed by a large number of boiling and seething craters, plentiful pots of mud and small volcanoes, steaming or warmed sites with gushes of steam or hot water. There are about 100 springs and more than 500 separate hydrothermal sources of practically all the types of waters in Kamchatka.

The biggest, the coldest and shallowest among the lakes of caldera is the Centralnoye. Lake Fumarolnoye is warm and is never covered with ice. Lake Bannoye with the winter temperature 40 ° Ñ has a false bottom; the crust is formed by melted sulphur located in the depth. Lake Utinoye is cold, it has the unique sulphury beach. The warmth of the ground attracts animals and birds. There is much waterfowl on the thermal sites. Here the sandpipers, hooping swans and various species of ducks make their nests. In a fog bears and their cubs are roaming on the warm ground.