Maly Semyachik – the volcano with the chameleon crater-lake.

Route 264 and the Valley of Geysers and Uzon caldera – done.

Next up on our Kamchatka-2024 summer vacation – Maly (Little) Semyachik – one of the three Semyachik-family volcanoes (the other two being Bolshoi (Big) Semyachik and Tsentralny (Central) Semyachik. So – why Maly, if it’s the little one? Actually, little or no – Maly is still an oh-my-grandiose-and-gorgeous volcano. See for yourself! ->

Inside its oval-shaped crater there sits that there beautiful lake, which measures around 800×1000 meters. I’d have described the lake just now as bright-turquoise colored – if it stayed bright turquoise all the time, but it doesn’t. Depending on (i) the particular acidity of its water fluid at a particular point in time, and (ii) how much light there is (in turn dependent on the time of day, the season of the year, and the weather) at that same particular point in time, it changes color: a chameleon lake! ->

Apparently the acidity of the fluid is akin to that of stomach acid; accordingly – taking a dip therein isn’t recommended. You’d dissolve before rescuers could even leave their base!

Here are some of the other colors we’ve seen Maly Semyachik’s lake take on down the years. And here’s just one of them:

Maly Semyachik on the map – around 45km to the southwest of Uzon and the Valley of Geysers:

As I’ve mentioned – I’d viewed Maly quite a few times before; but never had I been to the top for a walkabout. That changed today!…

Upon approach, from the side it’s just a regular Kamchatkan volcano ->

I can just imagine the astonishment of the first explorers/geologists/surveyors… when they first reached the rim of the caldera:

Over we chopper…

We land! Time for our walkabout!…

Gray ->

A while later… ->

I was too late in realizing it this time (too busy snapping and rapturizing), but this here caldera rim is perfectly trekkable. It’s a mere five kilometers in length – so could be done in a couple of hours. And so it was agreed – we need to come back one day and get stuck straight into said caldera-walk!…

Btw – volcanic craters’ lakes’ water changing color is a rare phenomenon – but I have seen it in a few other places around the world. One example that springs to mind is Indonesia’s Kelimutu:

…And there’s Ijin (also in Indonesia) ->

There’s also Inferno Crater Lake in New Zealand ->

There’s the lake in the crater of Poás Volcano in Costa Rica (haven’t been – yet), and the lakes in the craters of both Mount Aso and Mount Kusatsu-Shirane in Japan (also haven’t seen – yet)…

Elsewhere in Kamchatka there are the craters of Gorely (alas – one’s dried up completely, and the other’s a shadow of its former self), but I’ll be getting to those in due course shortly…

Meanwhile, back on Maly Semyachik (rather – high up above it)…

And for those with no time for clicking links – here are the different colors down the years (which is your favorite?!)…

2006:

2010:

April 2013:

Summer 2021:

Btw: this year the nearby Karymsky Volcano was heavily smoking:

And a few more photos from the caldera’s ridge:

Our ride, plus an envious little upstart! ->

This year Karymsky looked like this (that’s cloud on top – not smoke/ash, as it seems) ->

And talking of Karymsky – you guessed it – that’s where we’re heading next!…

Back soon!…

The rest of the pics from Kamchatka-2024 are here.