Not far from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky there is a Mutnovsky geothermal power plant, which is the biggest of its kind in Russia.

The geothermal power plant includes facilities with lots of pipes around. Believe it or not, in winter everything here is snowed under.

The operation scheme is quite simple. They pump water deep underground through specially drilled-in holes. Then the water reaches naturally heated layers of the Earth crust and percolating through hot granite, keeps getting hot until it evaporates. After that,  the water goes back up through another parallel hole.

Then the hot water goes to the power plant heat exchanger, where its energy is translated into power.

Geothermal power plants are renewable energy sources with no emissions. However,  they are so rarely used around the world.

This is a sulfuric acid sedimentation tank.

These are hostels for workers. They are uplifted so high because of the snow depth.

Malaya Valley of Geysers is just 500 meters away from the geothermal power plant. One can see it from far away by its steam columns.

It seems that the whole valley was developed for power engineering and just this piece of land with geysers was left for tourists.

These pools are better to stay away from because they may contain alkali or acid.

Reactions are continuous and sometimes these fountains form holes in the ground.

Here’s the geyser. Looks like a pipe break.

In fact, these are not geysers. Geysers are springs which periodically eject hot water. In the world there are just few places where you can find geysers: Bolshaya Valley of Geysers in Kronotskiy Reserve and Yellowstone, Iceland, New Zealand, Chile, Bolivia, Tibet, Pakistan, and Hungary.

Hot water brings up clay from the bowels of the earth. Some people think that it has a rejuvenating effect, and it may be true.

The cold water of this melting snow delutes the hot water from the undergroung. Down the hill there is a place for swimming. The water there is cold but not ice.

This is a regular landscape one can see approaching a volcano.

Another picture “from Mars”

This is a whole world…

… located on just 100 square metes of land.

Local people call these springs ‘Dachnie’.

The valley is situated at the foot of the ‘Mutnovskiy’ volcano.

It looks like a parallel world or future from a computer game, where people use water steam whenever they can.

This is a reservoir with acid. Stay away from it!

The water was evaporating and the steam was turning turquoise.

In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky there are more places to see and more picks to climb. That’s for sure.

Location Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

via toinvent