Drone Footage of the Geldingadalur Volcano, Iceland – Olivier Grunewald (2021)

The drone footage by Olivier Grunewald shows the crater filling up and forming a short lived lava lake like the one that was present in the crater of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or that of Erta Alé in Ethiopia. Subsequently. the lava begins to cascade at high speed through an opening in the walls of the crater. The surface of the lava lake experiences bubbly explosions releasing hot gasses similar to Bembow and Marum craters in Vanuatu. A column of lava rises in fountains like on the Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland in 2014, or regularly in Réunion on the Piton de la Fournaise. Once the gas escapes, the fountains stop and the crater drains, often bursting huge bubbles. The accumulation of projections from the lava fountains forms fragile vertical walls that sometimes collapse. At the end of each cycle, the lava flow, stuck in an elevated channel, progresses with numerous lateral overflows. It takes 8-10 minutes for a new cycle to take place.

Be it Mount Ararat or Mount Chimborazo, every massive stratovolcano was once upon a time a tiny little pimple on the Earth’s surface. It is most certainly very fascinating to see a baby volcano being born, a geological process that will last a very long time. The first technical description of lava flow comes from the ancient geographer Strabo of Amaseia. In his book, he describes the Katakekaumene, which means the “burnt country” referring to a region of around 1,800 km2 in western Anatolia. The region harbors a dormant volcanic belt within the town of Kula which has been declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The volcanism ended about 12,000 years ago. Black volcanic cones, rugged basalt plateaus, and canyons flanked by basalt columns form the unique features of this area.

In February 2021 on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula a series of earthquakes alarmed geologists about the magma beneath the Geldingadalir valley was in motion. Indeed, late on March 19, an eruption was recorded where lava broke through the surface near the shield volcano of Fagradalsfjall. The event was bright enough for NASA and NOAA satellites to detect.

There are a few places in the world where people can see active volcanos but this is a very dangerous act as we have seen from the New Zealand active volcano that killed scores of tourists in 2019.

Geologists are eager to study lava coming out of the Earth’s mantle. They go to various hot spots around the world to try to sample from active volcanoes such as the Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaiʻi or a boiling lava lake on Ambrym Island in Vanuatu.