Working in Hell for $11 a Day

Working with oozing molten sulfur at a steaming crater lake, the miners of Indonesia's Kawah Ijen volcano endure wheezing lungs and bloodshot eyes to haul heavy slabs of the bright-yellow element, used in everything from cosmetics to gunpowder.

Out of the blue: From a distance, the turquoise water of the crater lake at Indonesia’s Kawah Ijen volcano looks picturesque. But it’s a steamy, sulfur-filled hell down there. The 200-meter (656-foot) deep lake is one of the most acidic in the world, so acidic it can dissolve fingers and clothing. Miners tread down into the crater to collect blocks of bright-yellow sulfur, which forms when gaseous and molten sulfur emerges from fumaroles — volcanic vents — and hardens. Above, a miner carries sulfur out of the crater on July 22, 2006.

Photo: SONY SAIFUDDIN/AFP/Getty Images

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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