A respite from the pandemic: the world’s oldest shocking spectacle, like never before

The eruption of volcanoes, this phenomenon that reminds us from time to time that we live on a fireball, is associated with tragedies that engulf entire cities or doomsday clouds of smoke and ash which, driven by the winds, affect crops, health and daily life. towns hundreds of kilometers away. Therefore, the natural impulse when the news that a volcano has erupted is to flee as much as possible.

But not this time.

Even for this island on the shores of the arctic Porlar Circle accustomed to seismic movements, the periodic eruptions of some of its 130 volcanoes and the daily eruption of geysers and fumaroles – all of this results from its location on the ridge where the plates North American tectonics collide. and Eurasian-, what has been happening for two weeks in the Reykjanes peninsula, not far from the capital, is unprecedented.

Is that, unlike other cones that have erupted in recent decades, that of Fagradalsfjall It is relatively small (385 meters high), near the capital Reykjavik, emits little smoke and noxious gases, but instead He’s been exhibiting his plump and relentless glowing photogenic crater since March 19 in a compelling, user-friendly film that until now has only seemed possible in Pixar’s digital fiction.

Thousands and thousands of Icelanders have come to meet it to enjoy the unique and fascinating spectacle that this volcano offers for the first time in 6,000 years in what appears to be a vital escape to the origins of a planet stopped by the pandemic.

The line of cars that travel daily the 30 kilometers of the capital has provoked in recent days the biggest traffic jams in the history of this country of just over 350,000 inhabitants. Once parked by the side of the road and armed with boots, coats and trekking poles, young and old alike walk expectantly for about 3 hours through barren, hilly and pockmarked terrain, barely dotted with snow-capped moss. . Until they throw themselves into a natural amphitheater where they remain speechless, ecstatic at the fire that comes out to greet them from the bowels of the planet.

Fagradalsfjall -a word made up of the Icelandic meaning “Beautiful mountain in the valley” and which in fact refers to the mountain closest to the site of the eruption – today it is a pot without a lid that seduces with its boiling carrot soup, its sparks rising to the sky and the 100 thousand liters per second of a viscous juice that blooms at over 1200 degrees and slowly pours over the valley below, forming a new map of lagoons, streets and avenues of a furious orange that stop like the foam of the sea at the feet of the spectators and, as it cools, they transform into a crumpled, iridescent black coat that hums its warm crackling for hours.

It is Geological disneyworld, of course, it became a perfect setting for photography and video, from selfies for Instagram fans to filming professional cameramen and their ultra modern drones that allowed cinematic shots flying over the lava rivers and the crater itself like never before.

Everyone enjoys this unique setting to their liking. Some couples took the opportunity to ask for marriage, others to get married, some to pose in a ball gown, disguised or naked, play a game of volleyball or cook sausages on the still crispy natural lava grill, the all with the regurgitating mountain as a backdrop.

Icelandic scientists were not surprised. During the previous three weeks, there had been 50,000 earthquakes on the island, many of them in the Reykjanes peninsula in the southwest of the country, the area where Keflavik International Airport is located. The last time such an intense rearrangement of the land occurred 800 years ago and was followed by a long century of volcanic eruptions.

No one dares to plan for how many days or months will Fagradalsfjall continue to host its magma festival But many geologists predict that other close successors could appear to take over shortly.

The news could not have come at a better time for this small country which had seen an explosion in international tourism in recent years, suffered from the drought of visitors due to the pandemic and has just reopened its borders to all those vaccinated.

The Icelandic government has already approved a strengthening of the budget of the municipality of Grindavik, the nearest town, so that it can install parking lots, chemical toilets and mark the path that leads to the Fagradalsfjall. Where thousands of people are expected to continue to arrive to take advantage of the oldest spectacle in the world: the human being in front of the fire.

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