Drone entered an erupting volcano and filmed until it melted

In the video (see above) magma can be seen erupting as the device nears the crater surface.

The recording ends abruptly, as the drone is burned by jets of lava. Gardar Olafsson, an Icelandic photographer, said on his Instagram page that he intentionally drove the device into the crater and that his drone ended up “merged”.

A few meters from the lava, thousands of onlookers gaze hypnotized at the spectacle of the eruption of a volcano on the slopes of Mount Fagradalsfjall, near the capital of Iceland. The most daring roasted marshmallows and cook hot dogs.

The place is reached after an hour and a half on foot from a nearby road. The relatively small and gentle eruption began on Friday evening March 19, about 40 km from Reykjavik. It is the fruit of mother nature, but it seems the work of a tourist office in search of a new attraction.

“It’s absolutely spectacular,” admits Úlvar Kári Jóhannsson, a 21-year-old engineer who came to the region on Sunday. “It smells pretty bad, but what surprised me the most was the shade of the color orange: much deeper than you might imagine,” he says.

AFTER 800 YEARS

Lava gushes out of a dome forming a small valley and collects in the basin, gradually turning into black basalt as it cools. Geophysicists believe the volcano has already spat 300,000 cubic meters of lava.

“Lo que me llamó la atención sobre todo fue la temperatura: cuando nos acercamos a la lava que se derramaba sobre el suelo, suffered 10-15 ° C y teníamos la frente roja”, explained Émilie Saint-Mleux, una estudiante francesa que vino with friends.

“It’s a bit like remembering the summer barbecue,” jokes Lucille Fernemont, another Frenchwoman.

When the eruption occurred, access was denied and then discouraged, and visits are now tolerated.

“We just make sure that people don’t get too close to the lava and if necessary we ask them to come in, we check that everything is fine,” said Atli Gunnarsson, a 45-year-old police officer, wearing a yellow helmet. and a gas mask on hand in case you need it.

Rescuers are keenly aware of a small, incessant beep coming from devices that detect the presence of gas, mainly sulfur dioxide, but the strong wind limits the risk.

On the Reykjanes peninsula where the eruption occurred, no lava has flowed for over 800 years.

FREQUENT ERUPTIONS

Eruptions in Iceland are frequent (one every five years on average) but usually occur far from cities and sometimes in very inaccessible areas. And others are too dangerous to allow access.

This time you can enjoy the panorama after a six kilometer walk from a nearby road to the fishing port of Grindavik, the nearest town (3500 inhabitants), near the famous thermal baths of the “Blue lagoon”.

Tourism in Iceland, which generally accounts for more than 8% of GDP, has collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but in recent days authorities have been trying to promote it by reopening the country to visitors who demonstrate that they have been vaccinated or have already had covid.

It is unlikely that they will be able to enjoy this spectacle for long. According to volcanologists, the most likely hypothesis is that the eruption will weaken quickly, after a few days.

ANSA Agency.

GML