Some of the many mud pots and mud pools in the area of Hverir.

Krafla is a caldera of about 10 km in diameter with a 90 km long fissure zone, in the north of Iceland in the Mývatn region. Its highest peak reaches up to 818 m and it is 2 km in depth. There have been 29 reported eruptions in recorded history.

South of the Krafla area, but not actually within the caldera is Námafjall, a mountain, beneath which is Hverir, a geothermal area with boiling mudpools and steaming fumaroles.

ON VULCANO ISLAND, ONE OF THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS OFF THE NORTH COAST OF SICILY

A mud pot at the the Hverarönd geothermal zone east of Mývatn.

N1241

HOP INTO THE 36 DEG CELSIUS BODY TEMPERATURE NATURAL POOL, COVER YOURSELF WITH MUD, AND LIE ON THE WARM BANKS UNTIL THE MUD DRIES; HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SKIN AND LOSE FRIENDS FOR A FEW DAYS. YOU WILL STINK AFTER BEING IN HERE AND PROBABLY HAVE TO THROW AWAY YOUR BATHING COSTUME!

Hverir

Hverir

Taken on my recent holiday to New Zealand.

Taken at the Wai-o-Tapu "Thermal Wonderland", not an over-exageration either, it's such a magical place (for anyone with any interested in volcanos or geothermals anyway :p).

This is supposedley the largest mud-pool in the Southern Hemisphere. It really did have a strange, prehistoric feel about it, a vast pool full of bubbling mud, making the most bizzare sounds.

Boiling mud pool at Hverir.

We have many of these in Rotorua, New Zealand

Sabateo Valley Hotsprings and mud pools, western Viti Levu, Fiji

Rotorua has a very pleasant public garden with lovely flowers, lake, and hot mud puddles. This wisteria is like Monet's but in an unusual setting.

first application

This tree is on the edge of a mud pool, I don't think it has done it much good!

These seem to be a feature of the upper saltmarsh. Sea Purslane and Sea Lavender sprout out amongst the salt-tolerant grasses, and then there are these patches of mud: little ponds of increasingly saline water, after flooding by spring tides, turning to soft mud pools then hard and cracked pans paved with salt rimmed, crazy tiles.

Mashatu, Tuli Block, Botswana

According to the Te Puia website, the pool is 6-10 metres deep, and the bursts of mud reach temperatures up to 90- 95°C.

Mudpool - Schlammbad

We are glad to know that Te Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley water and mudpools are well behaved.

NOTE: Look "wall-eyed" at the top pair or "cross-eyed" at the bottom pair to get a 3D image from the fused pictures. Another illustration.

Here's a helpful tip for viewing stereo pairs.

If you'd like to browse a bit, please enjoy a somewhat random sampling of my photos.

Bubbling mud

Real, live mud pools somewhere near the Waiotapu thermal wonderland in NZ.