YEP 7 Exp Kamchatka Day 2

Today the 30th of November, Maricela and I were the day leaders, in charge of coordinating the days activities. So the main things that we have planned to do today were the following: visiting of Mutnovskaya Geopower Station; then snow measurements; and finally the outdoor excursion, snowshoe walking towards Dachniy Hot Springs.

In spite of not being given the authorization to get inside the main building of Mutnovsky Geostation, we were given an outside tour by the manager of station. He briefed us on the history and specific function of it and informed us of the most important fact that this station on output (after using of natural resources: water and steam) gives us back an absolutely ecologically clean product. Also it works in a closed circle, so the same resources are used many times and the last fact is that this station supplies a third of all Kamchatka’s needs in electricity. Undoubtedly all these aspects are very important when we are talking about ecologically sustainable development of the Earth. This is a great paragon. That’s why this station was built in record time of 2 years.

After the tour of the outside buildings and installations we had an opportunity to make snow measurements directly near the thermal station on the bank of artificial warm (due to thermal water) current. We took a lot of tdifferenet ypes of measurements. We took snow temperatures at different depths, analyzed the structure and size of snow, measured its density and content of water. After this, we started to jump in the snow and a snowball fight started with snowballs, make different ridiculous actions.

Being under a deep impression of Mutnovsky geostation and possibility of producing the energy from natural gas, during our debrief Mike advised us of a prototype of absolutely new way of producing power. It confines of making power from gas, which is produced by man.

Could you ever imaging that here in such unbearable conditions where temperatures can drop down to 30 degrees below zero, blizzards could happen suddenly and weather could change from one moment to the next. In such a place it is possible to grow fruits and vegetables! Dachniy Hot Springs show that marvels can happen in any place. So here among ice-capped volcanic mountains and white high density snow is a small oasis of warmth and life. Steam flows through out the cracks and boiling water flows down the slope, and among all of this there is a place for some plants and bacteria to live.