Dominica's Boiling Lake is situated in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park - Dominica's World Heritage site. It is a flooded fumarole 6.5 miles (10.5 km) east of Roseau, Dominica. It is filled with bubbling greyish-blue water that is usually enveloped in a cloud of vapour. The lake is approximately 200 ft (60 m) across.
The first recorded sighting of the lake was in 1870 by Mr. Watt and Dr. Nicholls, two Englishmen working in Dominica at that time. In 1875, Mr. H. Prestoe, a government botanist, and Dr. Nicholls were commissioned to investigate this natural phenomenon. They measured the water temperature and found it to range from 180 to 197 degrees Fahrenheit (82 to 91.5 Celsius) along the edges, but could not measure the temperature at the centre where the lake is actively boiling. They recorded the depth to be greater than 195 ft (59 m).
Periodically, there have been fluctuations in the level and activity of the lake. In the 1870s it was deep, after a phreatic eruption nearby, in 1880 the lake disappeared and formed a fountain of hot water and steam. Another phreatic eruption lovered the lake level by some 10 m from December 2004 to April 2005, later the lake level rose again.
There is no road leading directly to the lake. It is approximately a 13 kilometer hike to the lake from the nearest road, passing sulfur springs, over mountains and through gorges along the way.
On July 6, 2007, adventure-film maker George Kourounis became the first person to ever cross the boiling lake from above, suspended by ropes over the most violently boiling section. This event was filmed for the TV series Angry Planet.
Dominica's Boiling Lake is the second largest hot lake in the world. The largest is Frying Pan Lake, located in Waimangu Valley near Rotorua, New Zealand.
Famous quotes containing the words boiling and/or lake:
“That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he it is that has browsed off all the woods on Walden shore, that Trojan horse, with a thousand men in his belly, introduced by mercenary Greeks! Where is the country’s champion, the Moore of Moore Hall, to meet him at the Deep Cut and thrust an avenging lance between the ribs of the bloated pest?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Such were the first rude beginnings of a town. They spoke of the practicability of a winter road to the Moosehead Carry, which would not cost much, and would connect them with steam and staging and all the busy world. I almost doubted if the lake would be there,—the self-same lake,—preserve its form and identity, when the shores should be cleared and settled; as if these lakes and streams which explorers report never awaited the advent of the citizen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)