Nature Observatory

← All cameras

Volcano

Geothermal Areas: 15 Live Cameras — steam and sulphur

15 cameras where steam rises straight from the ground: 4 valleys and ponds named 'hell', 6 sulphur slopes that never stop venting, and 5 where hot water wells up or erupts. 10 in Japan, plus Taiwan, the US and Iceland.

What you can see

Most volcano cameras watch the plume at the summit. These 15 watch steam rising directly from valley floors and mountainsides, which is why so many of them sit right next to hot spring towns.

Four places named 'hell' (jigoku). Noboribetsu Jigokudani is the valley where the water of Noboribetsu Onsen wells up: steam fills an old explosion crater and a boardwalk runs through it. At Mount Asahi, Daisetsuzan, white steam rises without pause from the Jigokudani on its flank, seen from the Sugatami area the ropeway climbs to. At Midagahara on Tateyama, the area called Jigokudani gives off steam containing hydrogen sulphide, and access is still restricted. Jigokunuma, Hakkoda is a pond clouded by steam and hot water beside Sukayu Onsen.

Six slopes that keep venting. Atosanupuri is known locally as Mount Io (sulphur mountain); the camera faces the fumarole field just behind the car park. Mount Kuju has the Iwoyama steaming ground on the north slope of Hosshozan, where white steam creeps down the hillside. Manza Karafuki, on the flank of Kusatsu-Shirane, is a patch of mountainside that steams without a break. Owakudani, Hakone is a valley of constant steam; activity rose in 2015, access was restricted, and it has since reopened within limits. At Xiaoyoukeng in Taiwan, white steam roars out of cracks in the rock and sulphur crystallises yellow. Above it, Mount Qixing, at 1,120 m the highest point in Taipei, is a dormant volcano whose vents still give off steam.

Five where hot water wells up or erupts. Akita Yakeyama holds strong springs such as Tamagawa and Goshogake; hot pools and vents dot the summit and steam comes straight out of the ground. Mount Tsurumi and Mount Garan feed the hot springs of Beppu; at Tsukahara Onsen on Garan's flank, steam and strongly acidic water still come out of an old crater. Hveravellir in Iceland is a geothermal field of steam vents and hot springs at 640 m between two ice caps. At Lassen Volcanic National Park steam from the fumarole field shows at the foot of Diller Mountain. Old Faithful Geyser erupts almost like clockwork, with only quiet steam in between, and the waiting is the attraction.

The reason to keep these 15 together: the same steam behaves completely differently when it pools in a valley, runs down a slope, or shoots straight up.

Cameras you can watch now: 15

3 video, 12 still. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

The operators publish no viewing season, and we will not invent one here.

Some descriptions do say how the steam shows. At Noboribetsu Jigokudani it turns whiter the colder it gets, and at Lassen the steam is visible on cool days. At Jigokunuma, Hakkoda, snow and steam mix in winter. No camera gives a set date or hour.

Refresh rates differ by provider. The 9 Japan Meteorological Agency cameras update every 2 minutes, Manza Karafuki from the Ministry of the Environment every hour, and the Icelandic Met Office camera every 10 minutes. The 2 in Taiwan are video streams.

Mind the time difference abroad. The 2 in Taiwan are 1 hour behind Japan and the 1 in Iceland 9 hours behind, with no daylight saving time. In the US, Lassen in California is 16 hours behind on daylight time and 17 on standard time, and Old Faithful in Wyoming 15 and 16 hours (calculated 2026-09-17), so their daytime is the middle of the night to dawn in Japan.

Access to Owakudani and Midagahara is restricted. Check local and municipal information before you go.

If it isn't showing

The cameras come from the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Ministry of the Environment, Yangmingshan National Park, the Icelandic Meteorological Office and the US National Park Service. There are no sample images for Xiaoyoukeng or Mount Qixing, either because the provider does not allow copies of its images or because no usable frame has been captured yet; see How we handle the camera images.

What volcano cameras are for in the first place is in What volcano cameras are looking at.

Each place in full: Shikotsu-Toya (Noboribetsu Jigokudani), Asahidake, Daisetsuzan, Midagahara, Tateyama, The Volcanoes of Tohoku (Hakkoda, Akita Yakeyama), Akan-Mashu (Atosanupuri), Kuju and Tsurumi, Mount Kusatsu-Shirane (Manza Karafuki), Owakudani, Hakone, Yangmingshan (Xiaoyoukeng, Qixing), Glaciers (Hveravellir), Cascades and Redwoods (Lassen) and US and Korean National Parks (Old Faithful).

The volcanoes themselves are under Volcano.

Where to find Geothermal Areas

Agencies publishing the cameras on this page

The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.

To find other cameras, go to the camera list. You can narrow all 445 cameras by format, region, subject and provider.