Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 1989
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989natur.342..790o&link_type=abstract
Nature (ISSN 0028-0836), vol. 342, Dec. 14, 1989, p. 790-793.
Physics
8
Earth Surface, Lakes, Planetary Craters, Sulfur, Volcanoes, Costa Rica, Io, Sediment Transport, Volcanology
Scientific paper
The level of the hot, acidic crater lake at Volcan Poas, Costa Rica, dropped progressively over a two-year period up to April 1989, when only scattered boiling mud pools remained. Here, the observation of large bodies of molten sulphur occupying part of the former lake bottom, which formed after the last of the lake water had disappeared, is reported. It is suggested that their formation resulted from removal of the overlying water, which allowed lake sediment temperatures to rise above the liquidus of the elemental sulfur deposits contained within them. The sulfur ponds bubbled vigorously because of the flux of hot gases from below, which kept them molten at a temperature of about 116 C. The low viscosity of sulphur at this temperature is likely to have been critical in enabling its migration through the lake sediments to collect at fumarole vents. Some aspects of the origin of the sulfur lakes at Poas may be analogous to the putative formation of sulfur bodies on the jovian moon Io.
Oppenheimer Clive
Stevenson David
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