Ambrym July 2000 Photo Page

9 July 2000, fish-eye photo. Efate. To recover the jet lag, Roby and Marco enjoy the coral beach of Undine Bay. The islands Nguna, Pele and Emao from left to right in the background.

9 July 2000, fish-eye photo. Efate. A typical melanesian boat on the Undine Bay beach.

9 July 2000, fish-eye photo. Efate. Natural sculptures.

17 July 2000, fish-eye photo. Ambrym. The oasis on the Ash Plain where we placed our camp. In the background, the Ambrym caldera rim with the top of Woosantapaliplip (999 m).

11 July 2000, f=50 mm. Ambrym. View on the nord side of Benbow volcano from the airplane. The Ambrym landscapes are dominated by water erosion: deep canyons cut the ash Benbow slopes.

11 July 2000, f=50 mm. Ambrym. Niri Mbwelesu Taten crater seen from the airplane. In the foreground, active fractures on the ground.

13 July 2000, f=28 mm. Ambrym. The ascent to Benbow on thin ash crests. From left to right: Roby, Douglas Charley and two local guides. The Ash Plain in the background.

13 July 2000, fish-eye photo. Ambrym. The view inside the Benbow crater from its S rim reveals two intracrateric cones: the S (center) and N (center right) vents.

14 July 2000, fish-eye photo. After a descent with ropes along the inner S rim of Benbow (left background), we reach the E rim of the S intracrateric cone: at its bottom there was a lava lake until a year ago.

13 July 2000, f=28 mm. Roby (right) places a pressimetre by University of Florence on the E rim of Benbow crater, pointing at the splashing intracrateric N vent (left), with the help of local guide Jimmy: just 'above' his head you can see a water eroded valley shown in the next photo...

14 July 2000, fish-eye photo. What seemed a small valley in the previous image reveals to be an immense landscape: this river collects most of the water raining inside the Benbow crater putting it inside the N vent! Roby in the background gives the scale...

14 July 2000, fish-eye photo. The only way to reach the N vent rim is to climb a river and to descend another one. The E inner Benbow rim in the background.

14 July 2000, fish-eye photo. At the end of the river, we reach the rim of the intracrateric N vent, with a good view inside it: the sulphur walls reveal a bottomless pit hundreds of meters deepn.

16 July 2000, fish-eye photo. Ambrym. Another bottomless pit: Niri Mbwelesu crater. Note the white dike on the inner walls. Mbwelesu crater in the right background.

16 July 2000, fish-eye photo. The local guides Ray (left) and Eric (right) on the Marum rim. Ray uses a cake form as a helmet, while Eric contradicts the usual believe that aa lava cannot be crossed by naked feet...

18 July 2000, f=135 mm. Ambrym. Rest at Lalinda.