The men who study volcanoes

1. A man was standing at the door of a small house, looking at the high mountain some twenty miles away¹.

From the top of the mountain thick smoke was rising into the sky. The man went into the house. In the house, instruments were registering earth tremors.

Soon some men in heavy thick coats went away — towards the volcano.

The volcano we are speaking about is Kluchevskaya, over 16,000 feet high, the best-known and biggest of the many active volcanoes of Kamchatka. Who are the men that are not afraid of the volcano?

They are the scientists who study it. They work at the Kamchatka station for the study of volcanoes. This volcano is an object of great interest to scientists. There, near the Pacific Ocean, great geological and mountain-making disturbances are taking place². These disturbances are being studied by scientists. Study of eruptions and of other volcanic activity is teaching the scientists a great deal about the laws of the formation of minerals deep in the earth.

The men whom we were watching went up the mountain through deep snow. They were carrying all kinds of special cameras and instruments. All around them thick trees were sleeping deep in snow. Cold mountain winds were blowing, carrying the snow across the ground. But noises,like gun -fire, were disturbing the silence. They seemed to be coming from above ³.

The men went up another ⁴ eight or nine hundred feet and came out of the trees on to an open place. Before them a fountain of fire, coming up from the earth, rose to a great height. Above it was a dark cloud with red tongues of fire. Below it was a river of lava, reflecting the fountain of fire. It was a slow, dark, wide river. All around it trees were burning in the heat.

2. The houses of the station were built on the river Kamchatka over thirty years ago. There, thousands of miles from the nearest city, the scientists have all the equipment they need — from first-class laboratories to telescopes. When an eruption takes place, cameras on these telescopes take many pictures⁵. But the main work must be done by expeditions.

The main crater of the Kluchevskaya volcano is a great hole some 2,000 feet across. The top of the mountain is covered with snow and ice, and the main crater cannot be seen. However, during an eruption, the lava also comes out through the weak places at the sides of the mountain. Such eruptions, though smaller than the main one, are much easier to see. The scientists can see them from a distance of about 700 yards. First of all6, they take many pictures of the eruption. They register the speed with which the lava comes out. They register its height and width.

Kluchevskaya had a great eruption in 1945. The fountain of fire rose to a height of about ten miles. At its top was a large black cloud. The fire could be seen at a distance of about 250 miles and the noise could be heard 200 miles away. The last eruption was in 1972-1974.