Caldera Base

A field base for teams studying a dormant volcanic caldera in the high Puna of north-west Argentina, 4,150 metres above sea level, where the air is thin, the nights fall to minus twenty and the ground still gives off gas.

The base stands on the flat gravel floor at the foot of the caldera’s outer slope, beside a salt flat, where tracked vehicles can reach it in every season. Its long, steep metal roofs shed snow and volcanic ash without anyone climbing up to clear them, and a seismometer vault sunk 7.5 metres into the gravel beneath the workshop keeps the instruments away from the wind and from the building’s own vibration. Air is drawn in high on the windward side, away from the low ground where heavy gases collect; every room has its own gas sensors, and the ventilation can seal the building and recirculate its air for twelve hours.

Images: Instinctual Group.