More pics from Middle Earth (just links for 56k)

Well, since you guys love photos of NZ.

This is near Mt and Lake Tarawera. Mt Tarawera blew its top not long ago (between 100 and 200 years), completely screwing over the area, it destroyed a lot of the landscape so the whole area was 're born' so it looks like it would have a few million years ago.
http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/Tarawera01.jpg
This is the track leading to Lake Tarawera, it takes a few hours to walk but is pretty cool.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/Tarawera02.jpg
This is Frying pan lake, its the worlds largest hot pool, (or something like that), its around 55 degrees C hot, and gains about 110 litres per second which flows down a stream.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/Tarawera03.jpg
The track leads you right down to the lake, its pretty hot as you can see all the steam.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/tarawera04.jpg
This is near the start of the stream, you can see the bubbles from the boiling water coming into the lake down the bottom. Around Rotorua the earths crustis very thin, so the steam you see up the top is coming out of the rock, not from the water.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/tarawera05.jpg
This is the stream, and it is HOT.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/tarawera06.jpg
This is the blue lake, which is closely related to the frying pan lake. When this overflows (around 80 degress C, almost boiling) Frying pan lake cools down, when this is low, frying pan lake heats up. Its pretty deep, and at teh bottom is one of teh worlds most powerful geysers, however, due to it being underwater, it never surfaces.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/tarawera07.jpg
These are the silicon terraces, similar but a lot smaller to the pink and white terraces which were destroyed in the Tarawera eruption. Further back, the boiling part, is an iodine pool.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/tarawera08.jpg
http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/tarawera09.jpg
These are more terraces, also with a close up.

Hope you liked them.

This post is the same to the not 56k friendly post

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