Devil’s Bath – New Zealand’s Neon Green Sulphur Pond

New Zealand’s Wai-O-Tapu volcanic area offers no shortage of intriguing natural wonders, but perhaps the most eye-catching one is Devil’s Bath, a bright green pond full of sulfur-infused stink water.

Devil’s Bath gets its color from a combination of hydrogen sulfide gases and ferrous salts. The shade  and intensity of the green sludge depends on the inclination of the sun’s rays and the amount of minerals present in the water at any given moment, but there’s never a day that the green body of water doesn’t look weird compared to what you’d expect a pond to look like. And then there is the smell of this charming attraction, which is best described as half sewer, half rotten egg. So yeah, Devil’s Bath sounds like an appropriate name…

Photo: Keerti Siag photography/Flickr

Devil’s Bath is one of the most popular attraction of the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, a geothermal complex about 11 square miles in size. It even has a generous viewing platform which allows visitors to admire its unique color and take in the “charming” smell.

 

Apart from the angle at which the sun’s rays hit the water, the other things that impact the coloration of this bizarre pond are a concentration of iron, which gives the pool an intense green color, and the sulfur concentration, which gives it a light green, almost yellow look.

 

And, in case you were wondering, no, Devil’s Bath is not safe for swimming. In fact, the lime-colored water is apparently acidic enough to peel a person’s skin off, which doesn’t sound very enjoyable.