Kawah Ijen or Ijen Crater is volcano which
has the largest acided lake in the world, about 20 Km wide and the
volume of the crater proximately around 36 cubic hectometres (29,000
acre•ft).
The summit of ijen crater is about 2.799
meter high, it took and effort for peoples to reach at the top. Mostly
it take two-hour hike is required to reach rim of the crater (1.5
kilometers) from the summit, and 45 minutes to hike down to the bank of
the crater, a guide necessary.
The caldera or the lake of Kawah Ijen
harbors has turquoise colored, the color it came from acidic crater
lake that leaks sulphurous gases constantly then mix the the water
spring that come of from bottom of crater area.
at Nigh the hot gases burn out to emit an
amazing blue glow unique color in some part of the bottom of crater, it
well known as “Blue fire” pure fire that emerge beneth the earth.
the blue fire emerge because the gases and
also liquid sulphur emerge from the cracks in the volcano come up with
high pressure and temperature (up to 600°C) and when it contact with the
air suddenly it ignite and burn as it flows down the slopes among the
pipe giving the feeling of blue lava flowing.
Kawah ijen is becoming very well known in the
world, as the only one natural blue fire. But not many peoples know
that actually ijen is not only amazing touristic destination. From Dutch
colonial age, Kawah Ijen is work place for sulphur miner.
The liquid sulphur that leaking from beneath
the earth channeled through a network ceramic-steal pipe line, the
liquid with bright red color molten, pours slowly through ceramic-steal
pipelines, then end of on the ground and liquid sulphur mix with Oxygen
it condense instantly then change the color becoming bright yellow when
it cools down.
All then miner have to break the yellow
cooled sulphur into pieces, the nearby crater in very dense of sulfuric
smoke (gas) that emerge of crater which can make peoples hardly to
breath and also make the eyes itchy. The miner have to deal with such
harsh enviromment an able to collect sulfur put in the their bamboo
basket and carried it down the hills. Mostly the miner carried weight of
basket up to 60 Kg – 100 kg and they carried it twice a day.
The miner carried it down, weight it up at
post point, then the officer (from private company) note how much they
carried in their basket, every 1 kg of sulfur paid for 800 – 900 IDR.
The workers work in extremely hazardous
condition with insufficient protection. Most of them suffers from
numerous respiratory problems due to breathing toxic fumes day in and
out. At times they work at night under to escape the heat of the sun,
and to earn extra income.
