Kawah Putih

Kawah Putih
Kawah Putih
	Kawah Putih
	Kawah Putih
Location	West Java, Indonesia
Coordinates	7°10′S 107°24′E / 7.167°S 107.400°E
Type	Volcanic crater lake
Part of	Citarum Basin
Basin countries	Indonesia

Kawah Putih (Sundanese: ᮊᮝᮂ ᮕᮥᮒᮤᮂ) (English: White Crater) is a crater lake and tourist spot in a volcanic crater about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.^[1]

Kawah Putih Lake (7.10° S 107.24° E) is one of the two craters that make up Mount Patuha, an andesitic stratovolcano (a "composite" volcano).^[2] Mount Patuha is one of numerous volcanoes in Java. Kawah Putih Crater Lake itself represents a relatively stable volcanic system with no records of significant activity since around 1600.^[3]

The Kawah Putih site was opened to visitors in 1987. The lake is 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) above sea level so the local climate is often quite chilly (temperatures are frequently around 10 °C (50 °F)). This makes a brisk change from the humidity of the north Java plain and the capital city of Jakarta. Kawah Putih is a sizeable highly acid lake (pH 0.5-1.3) that changes colour from bluish to whitish green, or brown, depending on the concentration of sulfur and the temperature or the oxidation state.^[4] The sand and rocks surrounding the lake have been also leached into whitish colours through interaction with the acidic lake waters (with possible mineral precipitation as well).

^ Simon Marcus Gower, 'Heading for the hills around Bandung', The Jakarta Post, 29 February 2008 and 'Natural attractions abound in montane Ciwidey' Archived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, The Jakarta Post, 15 June 2007.
^ Useful details of the geology of the area at Kawah Putih, including several detailed diagrams, can be found at Erik B. Layman and Sukusen Soemarinda, 'The Patuha vapor-dominated resource West Java, Indonesia', Proceedings, Twenty-Eighth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, January 27–29, 2003. Information on the science of volcanic lakes^{[permanent dead link]} is also helpful as a background to the Kawah Putih system.
^ For some details see the notes on Kawah Putih Archived 2013-04-25 at the Wayback Machine on the catalog of Volcanic Lakes of the World Archived 2012-02-19 at the Wayback Machine.
^ A detailed technical discussion is in T.Sriwana, M.J. van Bergen, J.C. Varekamp, S. Sumarti, B. Takano, B.J.H. van Os, and M.J. Leng, Geochemistry of the acid Kawah Putih lake, Patuha Volcano, West Java, Indonesia, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 97(1-4), April 2000, pp 77-104. See also the discussion of the Kelimutu volcano in Flores and the references cited.

[1] Simon Marcus Gower, 'Heading for the hills around Bandung', The Jakarta Post, 29 February 2008 and 'Natural attractions abound in montane Ciwidey' Archived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, The Jakarta Post, 15 June 2007.

[2] Useful details of the geology of the area at Kawah Putih, including several detailed diagrams, can be found at Erik B. Layman and Sukusen Soemarinda, 'The Patuha vapor-dominated resource West Java, Indonesia', Proceedings, Twenty-Eighth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, January 27–29, 2003. Information on the science of volcanic lakes^{[permanent dead link]} is also helpful as a background to the Kawah Putih system.

[3] For some details see the notes on Kawah Putih Archived 2013-04-25 at the Wayback Machine on the catalog of Volcanic Lakes of the World Archived 2012-02-19 at the Wayback Machine.

[4] A detailed technical discussion is in T.Sriwana, M.J. van Bergen, J.C. Varekamp, S. Sumarti, B. Takano, B.J.H. van Os, and M.J. Leng, Geochemistry of the acid Kawah Putih lake, Patuha Volcano, West Java, Indonesia, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 97(1-4), April 2000, pp 77-104. See also the discussion of the Kelimutu volcano in Flores and the references cited.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]