Ambrym Island

Information and Illustrations here. Please note the files on this page are large and may take a while to load. These images were inspirational in the writing of Stargate SG-1 City of the Gods and Chimera.

Ambrym. The dip in the middle is a collapsed caldera 12k across. The erupting 'parasitic' vents at left are seen in the next shots.

Maroum and Benbow (20mm Nikon lens, 4,000ft) facing South

Benbow, Maroum and the little tyke in the middle is Niri Mbweselu (20mm Nikon lens, a lot lower than 4,000ft)

Benbow (20mm Nikon lens)

 

Benbow's lava lake (20mm lens; *real* low) lest anyone think the lava lake is small, the next image (© ORSTOM) shows the scale

© ORSTOM

North face of Benbow...follow the 'road'

My favourite photo.

I'd talked the Vanair pilot into flying to Santo via Ambrym (it's one of those things you can do in the islands) so I could get some pix. But as usual, Ambrym was cloudy and glowering, dark and miserable. We couldn't even see the vents. Then, as I lowered the window in the cockpit to take a pot luck shot, a crack of sunlight lit the northern lava flows off Benbow. One frame on the motor drive later, the sunlight had vanished.

1982. The previous location at ground level. Reminded me of half-melted chocolate mud cake. My husband used my Nikonos 3 and 35mm lens to get these shots (I'm the one in the khaki shirt). I wasn't willing to bring a normal land camera because of the constant rain and ash fallout. We shared gloves; ineffectual protection while climbing loose scoria. I still have the scars on my knees. It might look like solid rock, but it invariably crumbled out from under you at the worst possible moments.

Maroum volcano, the 'parasitic' vent in the background. More intimidating than from the air.

Maroum's lava lake. It's a couple of hundred metres across similar in scale to the Benbow lake (above images). The lava is Constantine churning back and forth, then forms standing waves (visible if you look hard enough) and breaks against the walls of the vent. It's so fluid that it looks exactly like an ocean wave crashing against a cliffs and forming standing waves. Think about it. This is sitting just beneath the thin scum of rock on the surface of our planet.

Standing waves are pixelated, but they are the darker orange patches in the centre. And yes, it was very hot, very smelly and very spooky <g>.