MOSCOW - The best-known geysers of a cluster hidden in a remote Russian valley hit earlier this year by a landslide have re-emerged, a leading environmentalist group said on Wednesday. The Valley of the Geysers on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's Far East is one of five places in the world which shelters sizeable geysers -- holes in the ground from which plumes of boiling water shoot high into the air.
MOSCOW - The best-known geysers of a cluster hidden in a remote Russian valley hit earlier this year by a landslide have re-emerged, a leading environmentalist group said on Wednesday.
The Valley of the Geysers on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's Far East is one of five places in the world which shelters sizeable geysers -- holes in the ground from which plumes of boiling water shoot high into the air.
But in June a massive landslide in an adjacent valley covered the bottom of the valley and dammed a river flowing out of the upper section, flooding it and threatening to drown even the large geysers untouched by rubble and water.
Now WWF's director in Kamchatka, Laura Williams, has told Reuters in a telephone interview the flood waters had subsided and that 10 of the 16 large geysers had survived.
"The valley has not been completely destroyed but it has changed completely," she said. "It is still a magical place."
Immediately after the landslide WWF said a handful of the geyser were safe but it was unclear how badly the valley -- famed for sheltering the world's most concentrated large geyser collection -- would be damaged.
ALTERED LANDSCAPE
Pictures from the valley show an altered landscape. The valley's sides are churned up, walkways destroyed and water levels higher. But plumes of steam also seep out of the earth and the floods have subsided releasing tonnes of water.
Williams said that this month two of the best-known geysers started to re-emerge and steam again -- Bolshoi (Big) Geyser, located next to the viewing platform which fired water six stories high, and Pervenets (Firstborn) Geyser, the original geyser discovered in 1941.
This adds to the eight which escaped undamaged meaning the valley would still boast 10 large geysers in its naturally changed landscape, Williams said.
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Russian scientist Tatyana Ustinova discovered the valley in 1941 but there was little exploration of it until the 1970s. Now it is one of the region's biggest tourist attractions, pulling in around 3,000 visitors a year.
"It's even more interesting now as you can watch the rebirth of the earth," Williams said. "It actually made the valley more unusual, alternative and interesting for people."
The valley's most powerful geyser -- Velikan (Giant) -- survived. Every four or five hours it shoots water up to the height of a nine-storey building with the steam rising 300 meters (1,000 ft) into the air.
The world's other main areas for geysers are Iceland, Yellowstone National Park in the United States, Chile and New Zealand's North Island.
